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JOHN    WEBSTER:    THE    PERIODS    OF    HIS   WORK   AS  DETER- 

MINED   BY    HIS    RELATIONS    TO    THE    DRAMA    OF    HIS    DAY 

=  (  FIRST     CHAPTER     ONLY)  = 


Inaugural-Dissertation 

zur 

Erlangung  der  Doktorwuerde 

vorgelegt  der 


Philosqphischen  Fakultaet  der  Kgl.  Universitaet 
zu  Muenchen 


ELMER    EDGAR    STOLE 


y 


Alfred  Mudge  &  Son,  Inc.,  24  Franklin  Street,  Boston,  MaisachusetU 
1905 


WORKS  OFTEN  CITED. 


Arber,  Edward.    A  Transcript  of  the  vStationers'  Register,  5  vols.,  I^ondon,  1875-94. 
Bartlett,  J.  A.    A  New  and  Complete  Concordance  to  Shakspere,  I^ondon,  1894. 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher.    Works,  ed.  by  Darley,  2  vols.,  lyondon,  no  date. 
Chapman,  George.    Works,  ed.  by  R.  H.  Shepherd,  vol.  Plays,  I^ondon,  1889. 
Chettle,  Henry.     Patient  Grissel,  ed.  by  G.  Hiibsch,  Erlangren,  1893. 

Hoffman,  ed.  by  R.  Ackerman,  Bambergr,  1894. 
Cunliffe,  J.  W.    Influence  of  Seneca  on  Elizabethan  Tragedy,  I/indon,  1893. 
Dekker,  Thomas.     Dramatic  Works,  4  vols.,  lyOndon,  1873. 

Plays,  Mermaid  Ed.,*  lyondon,  1894. 
Dodsley,  Robert.    Old  English  Plays,  4th  ed.,  edited  by  W.  C.  Hazlitt,  15  vols., 

lyOndon,  1874. 
Eckhardt,  Eduard.    Die  lyUstige  Person  im  Alteren  Engl.  Drama,  Berlin,  1902. 
Fleay,  F.  G.     Biographical  Chronicle  of  the  English  Drama,  2  vols.,  lyOndon,  1891. 

History  of  the  Stage,  1  vol.,  I^ondon,  1890. 
Gardiner,  S.  R.     History  of  England  from  1603  to  1642,  10  vols.,  lyondon,  1884. 
Gnoli,  Domenico.    Vittoria  Accoramboni,  Firenze,  1890.* 
Halliwell,  James  H.     Dictionary  of  Old  English  Plays,  lyondon,  1860. 
Henslowe,  Philip.     Diary,  ed.  by  J.  P.  Collier,  I/jndon,  1845. 

ed.  by  Walter  Greg,  Part  I,  Text,  lyOndon,  1904.^ 
Heywood,  Thomas.    Works,  6  vols.,  lyOndon,  1874. 

Plays,®  Mermaid  Ed.,  lyOndon,  1888. 
ISAMBERT,  Taillandier,  et  Decrusy.    Rccucil  G6n6ral  des  Anciennes  lyois  Fran- 
daises,  29  tomes,  Paris,  1829. 
JONSON,  Ben.    Works,  ed.  by  Gifford,  I,ondon,  no  date. 
KiESOW,  Karl.    Die  Verschiedenen  Bearbeitungen  der  Novelle  von  der  Herzogin  v. 

Amalfi,  Anglia  Bd.  17,  198-258. 
KoEPPEL,  Emil.     Quellenstudien  zu.den  Dramen  Jonson's,  Marston's,  Beaumont's 
und  Fletcher's,  Erlangen,  1895. 

Quellenstudien  zu  den  Dramen  Chapman's,  Massinger's,  und  Ford's,  Strass- 
burg,  1897. 
Kyd,  Thomas.    Works,  ed.  by  Fred.  Boas,  Oxford,  1901. 
lyANGBAiNE,  GERARD.     lyivcs  of  English  Dramatick  Poets,  lyondon,  1691. 
Marlowe,  Christopher.    Plays,  Mermaid  Ed.,  lyondon,  1887. 

Works,  ed.  by  A.  H.  Bullen,  3  vols.,  I/)ndon,  1885.^ 
Massinger  AND  FoRD.    Works,  ed.  by  Coleridge,  lyOndon,  no  date. 
Marston,  John.    Works,  ed.  by  A.  H.  Bullen,  3  vols.,  lyondou,  1887. 

^  Other  works  used  are  cited  in  full  in  the  notes. 

'  Used  for  all  plays  contained  in  it :  Hon.  IVh.,  Shoemaker,  Fortunatus,  Edmonton. 

'  Cited  ordinarily  as  "  l<'leay,"  with  vol.  number. 

*  But  really  of  1867. 

*  This  ed.  is  used  vmless  there  is  statement  to  the  contrary. 

*  Used  for  Lucrece. 

'  Used  when  line-numbers  are  cited. 


Martin,  Henri,    Histoire  de  France,  16  tomes,  Paris,  1844  and  1858. 

MEINERS,  Martin.    Metrische  Untersuchungen  iiber  John  Webster,  Halle,  1893. 

Meyer,  Edward.    Machiavelli  and  the  English  Drama,  Weimar,  1897. 

MiCHAUD  ET  PoujouLAT.    Collection  de  M^moires,  32  tomes,  Paris,  1837. 

MiDDLETON,  Thomas.    Works,  8  vols.,  ed.  by  A.  H.  Bullen,  lyondon,  1885.^ 

Painter,  William.     Palace  of  Pleasure,  ed.  by  Jacobs,  3  vols.,  I/)ndon,  1890. 

Sampson,  Martin.    Webster's  White  Devil  and  Duchess  of  Malfy,  Boston,  1904.' 

Senecae  Tragoediae.     Recens.  et  emend.  Fridericus  L,eo,  Berolini,  1879. 

Shakspere,  William.    Works,  Globe  Ed.,  L,ondon,  1900. 

Shakespeare's  IvIbrary,  2nd  ed.,  ed.  by  W.  C.  Hazlitt,  6  vols.,  lyondon,  1875.' 

Sidney,  Sir  Philip.    Countess  of  Pembroke's  Arcadia,  phot,  reprint  of  1590  Q.,  ed. 

by  H.  O.  vSommer,  lyondon,  1891. 
Small,  R.  A.    Stage-Quarrel  of  Jonson  and  the  vSo-called  Poetasters,  Breslau,  1899. 
Thorndike,  a.  H.    Influence  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  on  Shakspere,  Worcester, 
Mass.,  1901. 

Hamlet  and  Elizabethan  Revenge  Plays,  Pub.  Mod.  I,ang:,  Ass.,  New  Series, 
vol.  X,  no.  2,  1902. 
TouRNEUR,  Cyril.    Plays,  Mermaid  Ed.,  I^ondon,  1888.* 

Plays  and  Poems,  ed.  by  Collins,  lyOndon,  1878. 
Ward,  A.  W.    History  of  English  Dramatic  lyiterature,  3  vols.,  lyOndon.  1899. 
WEBSTER.  John.    Works,  ed.  by  W.  C.  Hazlitt,  4  vols.,  lyondon,  1897.^ 

The  Duchess  of  Malfi,  Temple  Ed.,  ed.  by  C.  Vaughan,  London,  1900. 

See  Sampson,  above. 

*  Used  instead  of  Dekker  for  /Soaring:  Girl. 

'  This  presents  the  only  good  texts,  but  it  appeared  too  late  to  be  used  for  the 
citations. 

*  \3seAiox Contention,  True  Tragedieof  Yorke,  True  Tragedieof  Rich.  Ill,  Trouble- 
some Raigne,  etc. 

*  Used  for  the  plays. 

i  Cited  as  "  Works,"  or  "  Haz." 


10 


CHAPTER   I. 

Chronology,  and  the  Authorship  of  Doubtful 
Plays. 

IN  order  to  understand  the  development  of  John  Webster's  art,  it  is 
necessary  to  undertake  a  rather  extensive  investigation  of  the  dates 
of  the  composition  of  his  plays,  and,  further,  of  the  authenticity  of 
some  of  the  doubtful  ones.  Of  the  eleven  plays  still  preserved  to  bear 
his  name,  two  were  first  published  long  after  Webster  and  his  theatres 
were  silent ;  and  none  bears  the  date  of  the  acting.  Of  three  of  these, 
the  authorship  has  been  called  in  question.  One  of  them,  the  Cure 
for  a  Cuckold^  I  shall  seek  to  prove  Webster's  own  ;  two,  the  Thracian 
IVonder  and  The^Weakest  Goeth  to  the  Wall,  spurious. 

I.     LOST  PLAYS. 

Of  the  first  plays  of  Webster,  we  have  the  dates  and  nothing  more. 
These  are  derived  from  entries  in  Henslowe's  Diary.  The  first  is  as 
follows  : 

lycnt  vnto  wm  Jube  the  3  of  novmbr  1601  to  bye  stamell  cllath  for  a  clocke  *  for  the 
Webster 
firwisse  the  some  of  iij".  P.  149. 

This  Collier  took  ^  to  be  the  drama  Webster  mentions  in  the 
dedicatory  letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Finch,  prefixed  to  his  Devil's  Law- 
Case  : 

Some  of  my  other  works,  as  The  IVhite  Devil,  The  Duchess  of  Malfi,  Guise,  and 
others,  you  have  formerly  seen  :  I  present  this  humbly  to  kiss  your  hands  and  to 
find  your  allowance  :  nor  do  I  much  doubt  it,  knowing  the  greatest  of  the  Caesars 
have  cheerfully  entertained  less  poems  than  this  *  ;  etc. 

Such  a  connection  as  Collier  supposes  is  in  itself  suspicious.  Why 
should  Webster  mention  the  Guise  with  pride,  in  company  with  his 
masterpieces,  if  it  be  so  early  a  play  as  to  precede  work  so  crude  and 
colorless  as  his  in  partnership  with  Dekker  or  his  Induction  to  the 
Malcontent?  or  if   the    "  Gwisse "    be   only   a   recast  of   Marlowe's 

^  This  is  evidently  cloak,  for  the  next  entry  (p.  150)  is  to  "  bye  fuschen  and  lynynge 
for  the  clockes  for  the  raasaker  of  f ranee." 
•  Footnote  to  Henslowe  (Coll.),  pp.  202-3. 
'  Works,  vol.  Ill,  p.  5. 

11 


Massacre  at  Paris  (as  Collier  also  suggests)  ?  ^  But  the  main  objec- 
tion is  in  the  entry  itself.  "  Webster,^ ^  Collier  says,  "is  interlined, 
perhaps  in  a  different  hand  "  ;  but  Mr,  G.  F.  Warner  says  it  \s  forged. 
Even  on  ' '  internal  evidence  ' '  the  entry  is  highly  suspicious  :  why,  as 
Mr.  Fleay  suggests,  should  the  name  of  the  author  be  added  to  an 
entry  that  has  to  do  with  the  buying  of  properties  ?  But  it  is  spurious  : 
"there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever,"  says  Mr.  Warner,  "that  the 
name  was  not  written  by  the  same  hand  as  the  rest  of  the  entry  ;  and 
it  is  equally  evident  that  it  is  a  spurious  modern  addition."^  Now  it 
is  not  cited  by  Dyce  among  the  other  entries  in  Henslowe  at  p.  v  of 
his  introduction  to  the  edition  of  1830  :  it  therefore  did  not  then  exist. 

The  "Gwisse,"  then,  is  nothing  but  Marlowe's  Massacre  at  Paris, 
entered  eight  times  ^  in  Henslowe,  and  indifferently  as  "gves, " 
"Gwies, "  "gwisse,"  "gwesse, "  "masaker,"  "massaker,"  "  masa- 
cer, "  "  masacar, ' '  —  not  Webster's  Guise.  When  this  last  was  written 
no  one  knows  ;  but  it  is  not  improbable,  as  we  shall  yet  see,  that  Webster 
in  his  words  to  Finch  was  writing  carefully  and  chronologically,  and 
that,  as  in  his  mention  of  them  Malfi  rightly  follows  the  White  Devil^ 
the  Guise  rightly  follows  Malfi,  and  belongs  to  the  period  1617-22. 

Of  the  remaining  lost  plays,  I  have  only  to  record  a  series  of  entries*: 

lyCnt  vnto  the  company  the  22  of  maij  1602  to  geue  vnto  antoney  monday  &  mihell 
drayton  webester  &  the  Rest  in  eameste  of  a  Boocke  called  sesers  ffalle  the  some 
of  v".  P.  166. 

lycnt  unto  Thomas  downton  the  29  of  maye  1602  to  paye  Thomas  dickers  drayton 
mydellton  &  webester  &  mondaye  in  fulle  paymente  for  therplaye  called  too  shapes,"" 
the  some  of  iij".  P.  167. 

I^ent  unto  Thomas  hewode  &  John  webster  the  2  of  novmbr  1602  in  eameste  of  a 
playe  called  cryssmas  comes  bute  once  ayeare  the  some  of  iij".®  P.  184. 

One  more  dramatic  work,  a  lost  one,  completes  the  list.  In  Sir 
Henry  Herbert's  office-book  there  is  an  entry  under  date  of  September, 
1624: 

A  new  Tragedy,  called,  A  Late  Murther  of  the  Sonn  upon  the  Mother:  Written  by 
Forde,  and  Webster.'' 

*  Henslowe  (Coll.  ed.),  p.  202,  note. 

'  G.  F.  Warner,  Catalogue  of  Mss.  and  Muniments  of  Alleyn^s  College  of  God's 
Gift  at  Dulwich,  London,  1881,  pp.  161-2.    Cf.  Greg's  Henslowe,  pp.  xlii-iii. 

*  See  the  Index  to  Henslowe  (Coll.  ed.).  But  I  give  Greg's  readings,  pp.  15, 17, 72, 
149,  150,  153,  etc.,  twice  with  "  of  France  "  following,  never  "  at  Paris." 

*  Given  in  Haz.,  but  I  take  them  directly  from  Henslowe. 

*  Coll.  reads  '  too  harpes.' 

"  There  are  also  two  entries  recording  payments  to  Dekker  and  to  Chettle  on  the 
same  play,  the  23rd  and  the  26th  of  November,  p.  185. 

'See  George  Chalmers's  Supplemental  APology  for  Believers  in  the  ShaksPeare- 
Papers,  I/)ndon,  1799,  pp.  218-19. 

12 


II.     THE  MALCONTENT. 

In  1604  Marston's  Malcontent  ^sls  first  published.  It  appeared  in 
two  editions  by  the  same  publisher;  the  first  entirely  by  Marston,. 
the  second  "augmented  by  Marston,  with  additions  played  by  the 
King's  Majesties  Servants,  written  by  John  Webster."  The  play 
was  registered  July  5th,  1604.  It  was  in  this  same  year  that  Web- 
ster's part  was  contributed.  Reasons  why  are  involved  with  the 
question  how  much  he  contributed,  both  of  which  matters  were  best 
relegated  to  Chapter  II. 

Three  plays,  all  first  printed  in  1607,  bear  also  Dekker's  name,  — 
Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,  Westward  Ho,  and  Northward  Ho.  They  are 
Dekker's,  as  we  shall  see  in  Chapter  II,  in  substance,  style,  and  spirit ; 
and  nothing  in  them  would  suggest  that  they  are  also  Webster's.  But 
three  title-pages  of  first  editions  are  too  strong  to  be  lightly  confuted, 
even  on  evidence  of  a  positive  character ;  and  such  is  wanting. 

III.     SIR   THOMAS   WYATT. 

Wyatt  is  the  earliest,  certainly,  of  the  three.  The  style  is  more 
primitive  (though  of  course  Elizabethan  tragedy  can  not  be  profitably 
compared  with  comedy  in  this  respect,  being  far  more  conventional- 
ized and  conservative);  and  there  is  earlier  external  evidence,  that 
is,  in  Henslowe  : 

L,ent  vnto  thomas  hewode  the  21  of  octobr  1602  to  paye  vnto  mr  deckers  chettell 
sraythe  webester  &  hewode  in  fulle  payment  of  ther  playe  of  ladye  Jane  the  some  of 
v»  x«.  P.  183. 

lycnt  vnto  John  ducke  the  27  of  octobr  1602  to  geue  vnto  thomas  deckers  in  eameste 
of  the  2  pt  of  lyady  Jane  the  some  of  v'.  P.  184. 

That  the  title  should  here  be  Lady  Jane  is  not  surprising  :  that  is  Hens- 
lowe's  way.  Marlowe's  Massacre  at  Paris,  as  we  have  seen,  Henslowe 
calls  indiscriminately  "Gwisse"  and  "Massacre  of  France,"  and  he 
calls  the  Spanish  Tragedy  ' '  Jeronymo  "  ^ ;  hence  it  is  not  at  all  sur- 
prising, especially  when  we  remember  that,  as  a  rule,  these  English 
historical  plays  were  named  after  the  king  or  queen  at  the  centre  of  the 
action  (cf.  Shakspere's  Henries  and  Richards),  that  Henslowe  should 
name  the  play  after  the  occupant  of  the  throne  rather  than  after  the  par- 
tisan, and  principal  character,  Wyatt.  As  to  a  Second  Part,  it  is  diflScult 
to  conceive  of  it  unless  it  be  in  the  present  play,  which  contains  Jane's 
and  her  husband's  death,  and  the  "coronation  of  Queen  Mary,  and 
the  coming  in  of  King  Philip";  and  Dyce's  conjecture  ^  that  Wyatt 


See  Boas.  Kyd's  Works,  Oxford,  1901,  p.  xli. 
See  Dyce's  Webster,  ed.  1857,  p.  xii. 

13 


is  composed  of  fragfinents  from  the  two  parts  may  be  correct.  Yet 
the  play  is  over  small  to  be  a  consolidation  of  two  parts,  and  the 
coronation  and  the  * '  coming  in  of  King  Philip  ' '  appear  only  on  the 
title-page,  not  in  the  text  itself  ;  and  loose  and  fragmentary  as  the 
structure  is,  it  is  not  more  so  than  that  of  plenty  of  chronicle-histo- 
ries.    So  it  is  quite  as  possible  that  we  have  here  the  First  Part  alone.  ^ 

IV.     THE   CITIZEN    PLAYS. 

The  next  play  in  point  of  time  is  Westward  Ho,  registered  to  print 
March  2nd,  1605.  Its  probable  backward  limit  is  the  taking  of  Ostend, 
September  24th,  1604  ^i 

How  long-  will  you  hold  out,  think  you  ?  not  so  long  as  Ostend.     IV.  //.,  I,  1,  v.  71. 

The  book  of  the  siege  of  Ostend,  writ  by  one  that  dropped  in  the  action,  will 
never  sell  so  well  as  a  report  of  the  siege  between  this  grave,  this  wicked  elder  and 
thyself:  an  impression  of  you  two  would  away  in  a  May  morning.     IV,  2. 

The  interest  of  the  English  in  the  siege,  as  history  shows,  ^  was 
great,  and  contemporary  allusions  in  the  dramatists  are  numerous.* 
This  first  allusion  proves  that  the  play  was  acted  at  least  after  the 
length  of  the  siege  of  Ostend  had  become  proverbial ;  and  it  would 
fit  better,  of  course,  —  as  insinuating  that  she  could  not  hold  out 
forever  —  after  Ostend  had  been  taken.  The  second  would  seem  to 
indicate  the  author's  own  observation,  and  that  the  'book'  was  out, 
and  the  siege  over.^ 

*  Mr.  Fleay  (I,  p.  130 ;  II,  269)  is  of  the  opinion  (without  argument)  that  JVyatt 
was  put  together  from  fragments  at  a  date  considerably  later  than  1602.  He  makes 
the  simple  statement,  as  if  the  play  itself  indicated  it:  "  Queen  Anne  had  been 
crowned,  James  had  come  in,  and  the  Cobham  plot  had  been  discovered  in  the  mean- 
while."—  Of  all  this,  there  is  no  shred  of  evidence. 

'  Mr.  Fleay  (II,  pp.  269-70)  settles  the  very  month  and  day  of  D.'s  and  W.'s  parts. 
A  story  is  told  in  III,  3  (Just.  I  '11  tell  thee.  The  term  lying  at  Winchester  in 
Henry  the  Third's  days,  etc.) ,  and  Mr.  Fleay  infers  that  the  date  of  this  part  was 
summer,  and  the  summer  of  1603  !  He  adds  :  "  In  Northward  Ho  we  are  told  that 
Westward  Ho  was  acted  '  before  Christmas,'  but  it  was  only  just  before."  Mr.  Fleay 
does  not  give  a  reference  to  the  passage,  but  it  is  certainly  N.  H.,  I,  2,  p.  186  :  "  and 
for  those  poor  wenches  that  before  Christmas  fled  westward  with  bag  and  baggage." 
It  has  no  possible  reference  to  IV.  H.,  but  is  one  of  many  references  to  ridding  the 
city  proper  of  harlots.  The  citizens'  wives  in  W.  Ff.  were  not  poor  wenches,  nor  did 
they  flee  with  bag  and  baggage:  they  went  on  a  lark.  And  "westward''  by  no 
means  equals  "  westward  ho  f' 
»  Gardiner,  Hist,  of  Eng.  1603-1642,  vol.  I,  pp.  102,  214. 

*  Toumeur's  Ath.  Tr.  :  Chapman,  etc. 

*  I  am  loath  to  give  up  what  at  first  seemed  to  settle  the  date  of  W.  H.  definitely, 
and  at  the  same  time  shed  an  interesting  light  on  Dekker's  journalistic  methods  of 
work,  — a  coincidence  between  the  name  of  the  Italian  merchant  Justiniano  in  the 
play,  and  the  Venetian  ambassador  "Justiniano"   (Ital.   Giustiniano  and    Venet. 

14 


The  date  of  Northward  Ho  is  somewhat  involved  with  the  dates  of 
the  two  other  citizen  comedies —  Weshuard  Ho,  and  Jonson,  Chap- 
man, and  Marston's  Eastward  Ho.  What  was  the  order  of  these 
plays?  Westward  Ho,  Eastward  Ho,  Northward  Ho,  answers  Mr. 
Fleay,  and,  I  think,  rightly.  Westward  Ho,  the  pioneer,  was  written 
by  Dekker  and  Webster  for  the  Children  of  Paul's  '  ;  Eastward  Ho 
was  written  by  Jonson  and  the  rest,  in  friendly,  interloping  rivalry,  for 
the  Children  of  her  Majesty's  Revels  at  Blackfriars  ^  ;  and  Northward 
Ho  was  the  Paul's  •*  rejoinder.  For  Eastward  Ho  contains  in  its  pro- 
logue a  reference  to  Westward  Ho,  not  only  so  precise  in  character  as 
not  to  be  mistaken,  but  also  so  frankly  laudatory  as  evidently  to  chal- 
lenge for  itself  a  similar  success  *  ;  and  Northward  Ho,  unmentioned 

Giustinian)  mentioned  by  Mr.  Pory  in  a  letter  to  .Sir  Robert  Cotton.  Jan.,  1605 
{Court  and  Times  of  James  /,  I^ndon.  1848.  I.  44).  He  tells  of  the  splendor  of  the 
presentation  of  him  to  the  king  by  the  outgoing  ambassador,  Molino.  But  the 
date  1605  is  Old  Style,  actually  is  1606  (a  date  which  Calendar  of  State  Papers, 
Venetian,  vol.  X.  art.  544,  confirms).  Giustiniano  was  not  appointed  till  Mar.  18, 1605, 
and  did  not  reach  I/)ndon  till  Jan..  1606.  (Cf.  Borazzi  e  Berchet.  Ven..  1863,  Ser.  IV, 
Inghil.  p.  3  f).  Yet  it  seems  as  if  there  must  be  more  than  chance  to  explain  this 
coincidence  and  another,  —  the  name  of  the  character  Candido  in  a  drama  of  this 
very  year  {H.  W.,  1604) .  A  Signor  Candido  is  spoken  of  by  John  Chamberlain  in  a  let- 
ter dated  Mar.  25, 1612  and  again,  April,  1612.  to  Sir  Dudley  Carleton  <^ibid.,  pp.  164-6). 
He  seems  to  be,  like  Carleton,  in  Venice,  to  have  to  do  with  the  Bishop  of  Ely, 
and  to  have  written  a  panegyric  on  James  I.  This  Candido  may  have  been  Vincent 
Marine  Candido,  1573-1637  (Biog.  G^n.);  — but  I  make  no  further  progress.  Yet 
there  may  have  been  some  way  for  the  poet  of  the  Roaring  Girl  (Moll  Cutpurse,  a 
character  of  the  day.  see  Bullen's  Middleton.  IV,  p.  4) ,  of  Ravaillac  {If  This  be  not  a 
Good  Play) ,  to  learn  of  these  names ;  and  Justiniano  may  not  have  been  the  name 
of  the  character  at  the  first  performance. 

^  That  IV.  H.  was  from  the  first  written  for  Paul's  — not  an  acquisition  shortly 
before  publication  in  1607  — is  proved  by  the  registration  at  the  Stationers',  Mar.  2, 
1604:  "  presented  by  the  children  of  Paul's." 

«  Title-page  of  1605  Q.  '  Title-page. 

*  Noted  first  by  Dyce  : 

"  Not  out  of  envy,  for  there's  no  effect 
Where  there's  no  cause  ;  nor  out  of  imitation, 
For  we  have  evermore  been  imitated  ; 
Nor  out  of  our  contention  to  do  better 
Than  that  which  is  opposed  to  ours  in  title. 
For  that  was  good  ;  and  better  cannot  be  : 
And  for  the  title,  if  it  seem  affected, 
"We  might  as  well  have  called  it,  "  God  you  good  even  "  : 
Only  that  eastward  westwards  still  exceeds, 
Honor  the  sun's  fair  rising,  not  his  setting. 
Nor  is  our  title  utterly  enforced. 
As  by  the  points  we  touch  at  you  shall  see. 
Bear  with  our  willing  pains,  if  dull  or  witty. 
We  only  dedicate  it  to  the  city.  " 

15 


in  the  prologue,  contains  a  satire  on  Chapman,  who  was  probably  the 
main  author  of  Eastward  Ho.  With  this,  such  dates  as  are  at  hand 
agree.  Westward  Ho  was  registered,  as  we  have  seen,  March  2nd, 
1605  ;  Eastward  Ho  was  registered  at  the  Stationers'  September  4th, 
and  the  authors  of  it,  who  were  arrested  for  satire  of  the  Scotch, 
found  themselves  in  prison  at  least  after  May,  1605  ^  ;  and  Northward 
Ho  was  not  registered  till  August  6th,  1607. 

Northward  Ho  is,  then,  the  last  in  the  series.  In  my  opinion,  it  is 
so  late  as  to  fall  within  the  year  1606.^  It  contains  (IV  4,)  a  passage  ^ 
remarkably  similar  to  Marston's  Fawn,  borrowed,  I  think,  from  it : 

Bell.    But  what  say  you  to  such  young  gentlemen  as  they  are? 

Bawd.  Foh!  they,  as  soon  as  they  come  to  their  lands,  get  up  to  L,ondon,  and 
like  squibs  that  run  upon  lines,  they  keep  up  a  spitting  of  fire  and  cracking  till  they 
ha'  spent  all;  and  when  my  squib  is  out  what  says  his  punk?  foh,  he  stinks! 

N.H.,  p.  242. 

Herod.    .  .  .  What,  more  fire-works,  sir? 

Page.  There  be  squibs,  sir  ;  which  squibs,  running  upon  lines,  like  some  of  our 
gaudy  gallants,  sir,  keep  a  smother,  sir,  with  flishing  and  flashing,  and,  in  the  end, 
sir,  they  do,  sir  — 

Nym.    What,  sir? 

Page.    Stink,  sir.  Fawn,  I,  2,  20  f. 

The  basis  of  these  two  unedifying  passages  is  possibly,  as  with  so 
many  Elizabethan  jokes  and  diatribes,  a  popular  saying ;  but  there  is 
no  question,  nevertheless,  that  in  phrasing  the  one  passage  is  indebted 
to  the  other.*  Which  is  the  original?  Certainly,  if  coherence  and 
continuity  of  texture  are  signs  of  originality  (and  patchwork  of  bor- 
rowing), it  is  Marston's.  Only  in  his  is  the  real  force  of  the  figure  to 
be  felt  :  it  is  broken  and  obscured  by  the  ' '  spent  all ' '  in  Dekker  and 
Webster.  The  style  of  his  passage,  moreover,  is  thoroughly  his  own, — 
the  delight  in  disgusting  images,  the  "  smartness  "  of  expression,  the 


*  As  is  proved  by  Jonson's  celebrated  letter,  dated  1605  (Gifford's  Jonson,  Mem., 
pp.  40-41).  This  letter,  as  Fleay  notes,  must  be  subsequent  to  May  4th,  for  Cecil  was 
then  first  created  Earl  of  Salisbury.  —  That  the  letter  refers  to  E.  H.,  and  is  written 
on  occasion  of  imprisonment  for  it,  no  one  should  doubt;  yet  Gifford,  Bullen,  and 
Fleay  all  think  this  a  .subsequent  imprisonment.  There  is  no  space  to  go  into  the 
matter  here  ;  but  the  only  good  reason  ever  offered  —  J.'s  failure  to  mention  Mars.  — 
is  absolutely  confuted  by  Jonson's  and  Chap.'s  letters,  discovered  by  Mr.  B.  Dobell, 
and  pub.  in  Athenaeum,  March  30th,  1901.  In  these  complaints  to  the  King,  lyord 
Chamberlain,  and  others,  neither  of  the  authors  mentions  M.;  and  Chap,  expressly 
says  (to  the  King),  that  their  offence  consists  "but  in  two  clawses  and  both  of 
them  not  our  owne."     Marston's,  then,  who  had  escaped. 

'  Mr.  Fleay  (II,  270)  dates  the  play  1605.  c.  Feb.  Yet  he  holds  it  the  last  of  the 
plays ! 

'  Pointed  out  in  Bullen's  Marston,  Vol.  II,  p.  121. 

*  The  figure  occurs,  in  other  form,  phrasing,  and  application,  elsewhere  in  Dekker, 
as  H.  IV.,  p.  219. 

16 


real  force  in  both  rhetorical  structure  and  figure.^  Yet  these  same 
qualities,  lacking  generally  in  Webster  and  Dekker,  are  perceptible 
even  in  the  corresponding  passage  of  their  play.  Now  Marston's  play 
was  registered  March  12,  1606,  and  published  in  two  editions  the  same 
year,  while  Northward  Ho  was  not  registered  till  1607.  When,  then, 
we  consider,  further,  that  Marston  according  to  Anthony  Wood's 
account  '  was  in  great  renown  in  1606  for  his  wit  and  ingenuity,'  and 
that  Webster  himself  in  his  next  succeeding  work  has  two  quotations 
from  this  very  play,  ^  it  seems  pretty  probable  that  Webster  and 
Dekker,  in  order  to  piece  out  the  rather  skimble-skamble  stuff  of 
the  crazy  bawd's  speeches,  had  stolen  this  impudent  saying  from 
Marston . 

The  Fawn  first  appeared  on  the  boards  after  January,  1606.  It 
contains  a  reference  to  the  execution  of  Sir  Edward  Digby  and  his 
fellows,  January  30th,  1606.^  That  the  play  appeared  in  print  so  soon 
thereafter  is  only  in  keeping  with  what  we  know  of  its  popularity  : 
two  editions  appeared  that  same  year,  one  of  them  pirated,  and  in  the 
other  the  author  himself  declares,  that  "  it  cannot  avoid  publishing." 
If,  then,  the  Fawn  is  to  be  dated  after  January,  1606,  Northward  Ho 

^  It  is  unprofitable  to  quote  examples,  but  any  one  who  will  read  more  of  the  Fawn 
or  D.  C  or  the  Erich tho  passages  in  Sofihon.,  will  find  plenty.  In  the  Fawn  itself: 
II,  1,  39-42  ;  1,  94-97  ;  1,  78-81 ;  IV,  1,  545-7  ;  I,  2,  221  f.  Cf.  Male,  V.  1, 34,  where  '  stink- 
ard '  is  used  as  synonymous  with  the  sort  of  man  Marston  here  describes. 

''Fawn,  IV,  1, 106,  and  IV.  D.,  p.  15  ;  Fa7vn,  IV,  I,  328,  and  IV .  D.,  p.  22  (this dubious) . 

^  Fawn,  IV,  1,  309f :  "  Nay,  heed  me,  a  woman  that  will  thrust  in  crowds,  —  a  lady, 
that,  being-  with  child,  ventures  the  hope  of  her  womb,  —  nay,  gives  two  crowns  for 
a  room  to  behold  a  goodly  man  three  parts  alive  quartered,  his  privities  hackled  off. 
his  belly  lanched  up."  —  Mr.  Bullen  {in  loc.)  says  it  refers  to  Digby,  and  cites  Stow, 
ed.  1631,  p.  882,  which  runs  thus :  "  The  next  Thursday  [Jan.  30th]  Sir  Edward  Digby. 
Robert  Winter,  Graunt,  and  Bates  were  drawn,  hanged,  and  quartered  at  the  West 
End  of  Saint  Paul's  Church.  .  .  .  Friday,  the  last  of  January,  in  the  Parliament  Yard 
at  Westminster  were  executed  as  the  former,  Thomas  Winter,  Rookewood,  Keyes,  and 
Fawkes  .  .  .  their  quarters  were  placed  over  I/)ndon  gates,  and  their  heads  upon 
the  Bridge."  We  must  confess  that  we  are  dealing  here  only  with  probabilities; 
executions  —  hanging  and  quartering  —  were  not  then  uncommon.  Mr.  Fleay. 
indeed,  holds  a  brief  for  that  of  Watson  and  Clarke,  at  Winchester.  Nov.,  1604  {sic 
always,  though  Gardiner,  Diet.  Nat.  Bios.,  and  Stow  himself,  pp.  829-31,  say  1603), 
not  only  in  the  case  of  the  Fawn  but  also  of  Michaelmas  Terni  (reg.  May,  1607)  and 
Isle  of  Gulls  (see  below).  But  the  point  in  the  Fawn  and  in  Michaelmas  is,  that 
women  came  to  see;  that,  so  great  was  the  crowd,  they  paid  two  crowns  a  room  ; 
that  it  was  in  London,  and  all  the  audience  knew  of  it,  and  understood  without  more 
words.  It  is  impossible  to  think  that  it  should  have  been  the  execution  at  Winchester 
(66  miles  away,  whither  at  that  day  few  lyondoners  would  have  gone  for  the  show, 
certainly  few  women)  of  two  obscure  offenders;  rather  than  that  in  the  heart  of 
lyondon  itself,  of  the  reckless  devils  who  startled  Eng.  from  shore  to  shore.  If 
ever  women  went,  or  if  ever  rooms  round  Paul's  or  Parliament  Yard  sold  high,  it  was 
at  the  execution  of  the  Gunpowder  Plotters. 

17 


(if  it  be  certain  that  this  play  draws  the  passage  from  the  Fawn)  must 
come  still  later. 

To  reinforce  this  long  and  rather  too  slender  thread  of  argument, 
let  me  join  to  it  another.  Day's  Isle  of  Gulls,  printed  in  1606,  con- 
tains, as  Mr.  Fleay^  observes,  a  reference  to  all  three  of  our  plays,  in 
a  passage,  which,  since  it  deals  with  the  author  and  his  literary  iden- 
tity, cannot  possibly  be  interpreted  according  to  the  primary  ^  meaning 
of  the  phrases.  It  would  say,  this  author  is  not  any  of  those  popular 
comic  poets  you  already  know  :  — 

Prol.    A  meere  stranger,  sir  ? 

3.  A  stranger!  the  better  welcome  :  conies  hee  East- ward,  West- ward,  or  North- 
ward hoe  ? 

Prol.    None  of  the  three  waies,  I  assure  you. 

1.     Prethe  where  is  he  ? 

Prol.  Not  on  his  knees  in  a  corner  .  .  .  but  close  in  his  studie  writing  hard  to  get 
him  a  handsome  suite  against  Sommer. 

This  induction  was  written,  very  certainly,  for  the  first  perform- 
ance of  the  play ;  for  it  speaks  anxiously  of  the  reception  of  it,  and 
of  the  identity,  the  trying  position,  and  the  needs  of  the  author. 
The  play  must  have  been  first  performed,  therefore,  after  the  series  of 
our  three  plays  Westward  Ho,  Eastward  Ho,  and  Northward  Ho^ 
which  starts  at  the  close  of  1604,  and  yet  enough  before  "Sommer  " 
to  give  pathos  to  the  author's  needs.  The  dilemma  is,  whether  the 
summer  be  that  of  1605,  or  that  of  publication,  1606.^  The  quotation 
from  the  Faivn,  considered  above,  should  turn  the  balance  in  favor  of 
the  latter. 

V.     THE  WHITE  DEVIIv. 

The  next  play  is  the  White  Devil.  It  was  printed  without  register- 
ing in  1612,  and  not  again  till  1631.  To  the  date  of  the  acting  there 
are  many  clews.*  One  is  the  reference  to  Barnaby  Rich's  Neiv 
Description  of  Ireland,^  1610,  long  ago  pointed  out  by  Reed  but 
hitherto  ignored  as  a  means  of  settling  the  date  : 

An  Irish  gamester  that  will  play  himself  naked  and  then  wage  all  downwards  at 
hazard,  is  not  more  venturous.     W.  D.,  p.  16. 


^  Biog.  Chr.,  I,  105. 

'  Haz.,  I,  p.  65  :  "  Eastward  Ho  and  Westward  Ho  were  cries  of  the  Thames  Water- 
men," etc. 

'  That  the/s/^  of  Gulls  should  be  thought  to  contain  an  allusion  to  an  execution 
(that  is,  in  the  quibble  of  the  Induction  on  "  quarter  ourselves  "  ),  whether  Watson 
and  Clarke's  or  any  other,  is  absurd. 

*  The  earliest  and  most  certain  are  the  echoes  from  L«ar.  See  Chap.  III.  Lear  was 
acted  on  St.  Stephen's  Day,  1606,  and  first  printed  in  1608. 

•  A  new  description  of  Ireland  wherein  is  described  the  disposition  whereunio  they 
are  inclined.    Printed  for  T.  Adams,  lyondon,  1610. 


18 


There  is  there  a  certain  brotherhood,  called  by  the  name  of  Karrowes,  and  these 
be  common  gamesters,  that  do  only  exercise  playing  at  cards,  and  they  will  play 
away  their  mantels  and  their  shirts  from  their  backs  and  when  they  have  got 
nothing  left  them  they  will  trusse  themselves  in  straw.  This  is  the  life  they  lead, 
and  from  this  they  will  not  be  reclaimed.    New  Description,  p.  38. 

Another  passage,  in  Brachiano's  angry  words  to  Vittoria  : 

What !  dost  weep  ? 
Procure  but  ten  of  thy  dissembling  trade, 
Ye  'd  furnish  all  the  Irish  funerals 
With  howling  past  wild  Irish 

may  have  been  suggested  by  the  description,  at  p.  12  in  the  same 
book,  of  the  demeanor  of  Irish  women  at  funerals.  ^  At  all  events, 
this  book  was  registered  April  10th,  1610. 

Another  clew  is  an  echo  from  the  Atheist's  Tragedy  (registered 
September  14th,  1611)  to  be  found  in  the  celebrated  trial-scene: 

Monticelso  :  Away  with  her, 

Take  her  hence. 

Vittoria.    A  rape  !  a  rape  ! 
Mont.    How  ? 

Vit.    Yes.  you  have  ravish  'd  justice  ; 

Forc'd  her  to  do  your  pleasure.     W.  D.,  p.  65. 

Sebastian.    A  rape,  a  rape,  a  rape  ! 

Belforest.^  How  now ! 

D'Amville.    What's  that? 

Sebas.    Why  what  is  't  but  a  rape  to  force  a  wench,  etc.    Ath  .  Tr.,  p.  263. 

In  both  cases  it  is  an  abrupt  cry,  unexpected  and  startling,  against 
unjust  force  ;  in  both  cases,  a  tropical  expression  that  has  to  be 
explained  by  the  speaker.  It  is  very  likely,  then,  that  the  one  was 
imitated  from  the  other.  That  one  was  Webster's ;  for,  if  borrowed 
through  print,  Tourneur's  was  the  earlier ;  and  if  through  public 
rendering,  Tourneur's  was  by  far  the  more  prominent  and  notice- 
able. The  utterance  in  Webster  is  without  consequence,  and  is 
not  again  alluded  to ;  that  in  Tourneur,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the 
cause  of  the  breach  between  Sebastian  and  his  father,  etc.,  and  is 
alluded  to  explicitly  twice  afterwards.  ^  Now  the  Atheist's  Tragedy 
comes  later,  at  least,  than  King  Lear,  and  dates  in  all  probability  not 
long  before  its  publication.  ^ 

But  the  most  significant  evidence  is  that  of  the  preface  and  the 
postscript.*     Here  Webster's  mood  is  evidently  like  Jonson's  in  his 

*  Neither  of  these  passages  could  have  been  suggested  by  Rich's  Short  Survey  of 
Ireland.  1609  (reg.  1609). 

»  III,  2,  p.  293,  and  II,  3,  p.  273. 

'  In  1611.    vSee  App.  I  for  the  date  of  this  play. 

*  See  Works,  II,  p.  143. 

19 


prefaces  (though  more  from  neglect  than  from  antagonism),  and  like 
Jonson  he  publishes  to  right  himself.  He  defends  himself  for  taking 
so  much  time  to  write  the  play,  — a  rather  pointless  thing  to  do  if  it 
were  already  long  before  this  on  the  stage  ;  and  he  alludes  to  the  first 
performance,  twice  over,  in  both  preface  and  postscript,  as  if  it  was 
fresh  in  his  memory.  The  first  time,  he  assails  the  "auditory,"  and 
the  second,  he  praises  and  thanks  the  actors,  one  of  them  especially 
and  by  name.  This  he  would  hardly  have  done,  or  cared  to  do,  long 
after  the  performance.  For  why  open  an  old  wound?  Why  recall 
his  own  or  others'  forgotten  vexations?  Let  me  quote  from  the 
preface  and  postscript  themselves  : 

In  publishing  this  Tragedy.  I  doe  but  challenge  to  myselfe  that  liberty  which 
other  men  have  tane  before  mee  ;  not  that  I  aflfect  praise  by  it,  for,  nos  haec  nouinius 
esse  nihil,  onely,  since  it  was  acted  in  so  dull  a  time  of  Winter,  presented  in  so  open 
and  blacke  a  theater,  that  it  wanted  (that  which  is  the  onely  grace  and  setting-out 
of  a  tragedy)  a  full  and  understanding  Auditory  ;  and  since  that  time  I  haue  noted, 
most  of  the  people  that  come  to  that  play-house  resemble  those  ignorant  asses  (who, 
visiting  stationers'  shoppes,  their  use  is  not  to  inquire  for  good  books,  but  new 
books),  I  present  it  to  the  generall  view  with  this  confidence : 

Nee  rhoncos  metues  maligniorum. 
Nee  scombris  tunicas  dabis  molestas. 

If  it  be  objected  this  is  no  true  drammaticke  poem,  I  shall  easily  confesse  it,  non 
potes  in  nugas  dicere  plura  meas,  ipse  ego  quam  dixi ;  willingly,  and  not  ignorantly, 
in  this  kind  haue  I  faulted  :  For  should  a  man  present  to  such  an  auditory,  the  most 
sententious  tragedy  that  euer  was  written,  obseruing  all  the  critticall  lawes  as  heigh th 
of  stile,  and  grauity  of  person,  inrich  it  with  the  sententious  chorus,  and,  asitwere, 
lifen  Death,  in  the  passionate  and  waighty  Nuntius:  yet  after  all  this  diuine  rapture, 
O  dura  messorum  Ilia,  the  breath  that  comes  from  the  uncapable  multitude  is  able 
to  poison  it  .  .  . 

To  tho.se  who  report  I  was  a  long  time  in  finishing  this  tragedy,  I  confesse  I  do 
not  write  with  a  goose-quill  winged  with  two  feathers ;  and  if  they  will  neede  make 
it  my  fault,  I  must  answer  them  with  that  of  Euripides  .  .  . 

Detraction  is  the  swome  friend  to  ignorance :  for  mine  owne  part,  I  haue  euer 
truly  cherisht  my  good  opinion  of  other  mens  worthy  labours,  especially  of  that  full 
and  haightned  stile  of  maister  CHAPMAN,  the  labor'd  and  understanding  workes 
of  maister  Johnson,  the  no  lesse  worthy  composures  of  the  both  worthily  excellent 
maister  Beaumont  and  maister  Fletcher;  and  lastly  (without  wrong  last  to  be 
named),  the  right  happy  and  copious  industry  of  m.  Shake-speare,  m.  Decker, 
and  m.  Heywood,  wishing  what  I  write  may  be  read  by  their  light :  protesting  that, 
in  the  strength  of  mine  owne  judgment,  I  know  them  so  worthy,  that  though  I  rest 
silent  in  my  own  worke,  yet  to  most  of  theirs  I  dare  (without  flattery)  fix  that  of 
Martial, 

—  non  norunt  Haec  monumenta  mori.  Works,  II,  pp.  6-8. 

For  the  action  of  the  Play,  'twas  generally  well,  and  I  dare  affirm,  with  the  joint- 
testimony  of  some  of  their  own  quality  (for  the  true  imitation  of  life,  without  striv- 
ing to  make  nature  a  monster)  the  best  that  ever  became  them  :  whereof  as  I  make 
a  general  acknowledgment,  so  in  particular  I  must  remember  the  well  approved 
industry  of  my  friend  Master  Perkins,  and  confess  the  worth  of  his  action  did  crown 
both  the  beginning  and  end.  lb.,  p.  143. 

20 


The  nettled  spirit  and  the  circumstantiality  of  these  passages  seem 
me  to  prove  they  are  not  long  after  the  event.  Details  of  phrasing 
confirm  this  ;  for  there  is  evidence  that  before  setting  at  this  his  first 
preface  Webster  looked  round  for  models.  He  took,  piecemeal,  the 
seventeen-word  Ivatin  passage  above  from  Dekker's  preface  —  Ad 
Detractorem  —  to  Satiromastix ,  ^  the  final  *  *  non  norunt  haec  ' '  from 
Dekker's  preface  to  his  KnighVs  Conjuring,"^  and  several  phrases  and 
ideas  from  Jonson's  prefaces  to  Sejanus  (1605)  and  to  Catiline  (1611). 
This  last  correspondence  — 

.  .  .  1  cra.v&  leave  to  stand  near  your  light,  and  by  that  to  be  read.  Posterity  msiy 
pay  your  benefit  the  honour  and  thanks,  when  it  shall  know  that  you  dare,  in  these 
jig-given  times,  to  countenance  a  legitimate  Poem?  — 

might,  indeed,  be  explained  away,  were  it  not  for  the  indubitable 
imitation  of  the  other  prefaces,  namely,  Dekker's,  and  Jonson's  to 
Sejanus."^ 

Finally,  at  the  close  of  the  Epistle  Dedicatorie  to  If  this  be  not  a 
Good  Play,  addressed  in  this  same  year  of  1612  "to  my  loving  and 
loved  friends  and  fellowes,  the  Queenes  Maiesties  seruants, ' '  Dekker 
says  : 

I  wish  a  Faire  and  Fortunate  Day  to  your  Next  New-Play  for  the  Makers-sake  and 
your  Owne,  because  such  Braue  Triumphes  of  Poesie,  and  Elaborate  Industry,  which 
my  Worthy  Friends  Muse  hath  there  set  forth,  deserue  a  Theater  full  of  very  Muses 
themselues  to  be  Spectators.  To  that  Faire  Day  I  wish  &Full,  Free  and  Knowing 
Auditor,  etc.  Works,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  262. 

This  play  must  be  the  White  Devil.  Fleay,  who  first  noticed  the 
passage  (I,  p.  134),  says  the  Devil's  Law-Case ;  but  that  play  was 
certainly  not  written  (as  I  show  below)  till  1621-3.  Anyway,  it  would 
not  fit.  Dekker  is  interested,  it  would  seem,  in  a  maiden  effort.  That 
the  White  Devil  is  ;  and,  besides,  a  "brave  Triumph  of  Poesie,"  and 
brought  forth  by  "elaborate  Industry,"  and  played,  as  the  title-page 
of  the  1612  Quarto  informs  us,  by  the  Queen's  Servants.  Moreover, 
the  fact  that  Dekker  and  Webster,  after  the  preceding  years  of  part- 
nership, were  now,  in  1612,  after  several  changes  of  company,  both 
writing  for  the  Queen's  Men,  would  argue  a  great  and  lasting  friend- 


^  Non  potes  in  Nugas  dicere  plura  meas, 
Ipse  ego  quam  dixi.  —  Qui  se  rairantur,  in  illos 
Virus  habe  :  nos  haec  nouimus  esse  nihil. 

'  A  KnighV s  Conjuring  (1607?);  it  is  the  same,  word  for  word,  and,  as  with  W., 
closes  the  pref . 

*  Prefatory  letter  to  Pembroke. 

*  The  paragraph  beginning  "  If  it  be  objected,"  etc.,  for  instance,  is  fairly  a  plagi- 
arism of  the  second  paragraph  of  Jonson's  address  "  To  the  Reader,"  prefixed  to 
Sejanus. 

21 


ship  between  master  and  pupil.  With  this,  Webster's  mention  of  him 
by  name  in  the  preface  is  in  perfect  accord  ;  and  I  am  even  inclined  to 
think  the  Latin  line  appended  to  Francisco's  speech,  at  the  end  of  the 
third  act  of  the  White  Devil  (after  even  the  couplet,  observe),  due, 
like  the  seventeen-word  Latin  motto  from  Satiromastix  and  the  ' '  non 
norunt  "  from  A  Knight's  Conjuring,  to  their  friendly  and  intimate 
relations,  and  borrowed  from  the  title-page  of  this  very  play  of 
Dekker's.^  However  that  be,  it  must  be  the  White  Devil  that 
Dekker's  Kpistle  Dedicatorie  means.  ^ 

The  allusions  in  the  White  Devil  to  Barnaby  Rich,  to  the  Atheist's 
Tragedy,  and  to  Jonson's  Catiline,  and  the  nettled  tone  of  Webster 
in  his  preface,  all  point,  then,  to  a  date  shortly  preceding  its  publica- 
tion, not  earlier  at  any  rate  than  1611  ;  and  Dekker's  solicitous  words 
in  his  Epistle  Dedicatorie,  still  more  precisely,  to  the  beginning  of 
1612.^^ 

VI.     THE  DUCHESS   OF  MALFI. 

The  Duchess  of  Malfi  was  first  printed  in  1623.^  It  must  have  been 
on  the  stage,  as  Dyce  pointed  out,  long  before,  —  at  least  as  early  as 
March  16th,  1619,  the  date  of  the  death  of  Richard  Burbage,  who 
appears  in  the  actors'  list  of  the  first  edition.  Further  back  than  this 
both  Fleay  and  Dyce^  have  tried  to  thrust  the  date,  but  without  success. 

Mr.  C.  Vaughan,  however,  in  his  edition  of  the  play,  has  offered, 
*'  with  great  diffidence,"  a  suggestion  which  leads,  in  my  opinion,  to 
a  definite  fixing  of  the  date  : 

In  the  opening  speeches  there  is  plainly  a  historical  allusion  ;  and  probably  to 
contemporary  events  .  .  .  the  reference  may  be  to  the  assassination  of  Concini, 
Mar^chal  d'Ancre,  by  order  of  the  youngr  king,  lyouis  XIII.     Concini  was  bitterly 

*  Flectere  si  nequeo  Superos,  Acheronta  movebo.  In  W.  it  has  little  connection 
with  the  context:  in  D.  it  fits  his  title,  —  If  this  be  not  a  good  Hay,  the  Diuell  is 
in  it. 

'  The  antecedent  probability  is  great.  If  D.  and  W.  were  still  friendly,  as  their 
changes  together  from  Paul's  to  the  Queen's,  Web.'s  W.  D.  preface,  and  the  borrow- 
ings indicate,  in  whose  work  should  the  kindly  disposed  D.  be  more  interested  than 
in  the  first  unaided  effort  of  his  old  prot6g6?  And  who  more  likely  than  D.  to  have 
seen  the  text  before  the  acting  ? 

'Fleay  says  "  the  cold  winter  of  1607-8,"  on  the  strength  of  the  remark  in  the 
Preface,  and  of  a  connection  he  discovers  between  the  jousting  French  ambassador 
of  the  play  and  M.  Goterant,  who  tilted  the  24th  of  March,  1607. 

*  It  is  not  in  the  S.  R. 

"Dyce  sets  the  date  at  a  venture  c.  1616.  Fleay  (II,  273)  says  Dyce  is  "  utterly 
wrong:  the  date  of  production  was  c.  1612,  when  the  White  Devil,  with  the  praise 
of  the  King's  men's  poets,  was  published." — What  Mr.  Fleay  means  — Mr.  Ward 
says  he  does  not  know  what  Mr.  Fleay  means  —  is  the  praise  Webster  bestows  upon 
the  King's  Men's  poets,  Shak.,  Beau.,  and  Flet.,  etc.,  in  the  preface.  Now  Malfi,  we 
know,  was  acted  by  the  King's  Men  — that  is  the  basis  of  Mr.  Fleay 's  inference. 

22 


hated  ;  and  his  murder  was  skillfully  represented  as  an  act  of  justice  agrainst  a  pub- 
lic enemy  and  a  traitor.  I,uines,  who  advised  the  king  in  the  matter  and  succeeded 
to  the  power  of  Concini,  made  a  parade  of  calling  the  old  councillors  of  Henry  IV 
back  to  court.  .  .  .  If  the  suggestion  be  well  founded — but  it  is  offered  with  great 
diffidence  —  we  should  be  able  to  fix  the  date  of  the  play  more  closely,  to  1617-18. 

Temple  Ed.  oi  Malfi,  p.  146. 

This  conjecture  let  me  try  to  base  and  establish.  First  of  all,  con- 
sider in  the  text  of  the  first  edition,  ^  instead  of  the  very  uncertain 
one  of  Hazlitt,  the  two  speeches  in  question  : 

Delia:    How  doe  you  like  the  French  court? 

Ant:       I  admire  it, 

In  seeking  to  reduce  both  State  and  People 

To  a  fix'd  Order,  there  iuditious  King 

Begins  at  home  :  Quits  first  his  Royall  Pallace 

Of  flattring  Sicophants  of  dissolute, 

And  infamous  persons  which  he  sweetly  termes 

His  Master's  Master-peece  (the  worke  of  Heauen) 

Considring  duely,  that  a  Princes  Court 

Is  like  a  common  Fountaine,  whence  should  flow, 

Pure  siluer-droppes  in  generall :  But  if  't  chance 

Some  curs'd  example  poyson't  neere  the  head, 

"  Death,  and  diseases  through  the  whole  land  spread. 

And  what  is  't  makes  this  blessed  gouernment. 

But  a  most  prouident  Councell,  who  dare  freely 

Informe  him  the  corruption  of  the  times? 

Though  some  oth'  Court  hold  it  presumption 

To  instruct  Princes  what  they  ought  to  doe, 

It  is  a  noble  duety  to  informe  them 

What  they  ought  to  foresee.  Malfi,  I,  1,  first  speeches. 

There  is  one  clumsy,  obscure  passage,  but  it  means,  no  doubt,  that 
the  work  of  cleansing  the  palace  was  not  his  work  but  that  of  God 
through  him. 

In  order  to  explain  the  political  allusion  of  the  above  passage,  we 
have,  I  suppose,  to  accept  one  of  four  alternatives  :  the  allusion  might 
have  been  taken  from  the  source  of  the  play  itself,  Painter's  novel ;  or 
it  might  be  an  addition  of  Webster's  own,  historically  in  keeping  with 
the  story ;  or  a  mere  product  of  the  fancy,  put  in  for  filling ;  or  an 
allusion  to  contemporary  affairs.  As  for  the  first.  Painter  contains 
nothing  of  this,  except  the  allusion,  several  times,  to  Antonio's  having 
been  in  France ;  there  is  no  mention  of  a  F'rench  king  and  court.  ^ 
As  to  the  second,  that  Webster  should  have  had  in  mind  the  French 
court  of  Antonio's  day,  whether  that  of  Lewis  XII  or  Francis  I,  is 
out  of    the  question  :    Webster  generally,    as  the  instances  of   the 


^  Brit.  Mus.  Q. 

*  There  are  indeed  two  bare  mentions  of  King  L,ewis  [XIl]    (Painter,  vol.  Ill, 
pp.  4  and  8)  by  name  :  "  In  the  time  of  King  l^wis  XII,"  "  returned  to  King  l^wis." 

23 


DeviVs  Lazv-Case  or  Appius  and  Virginia  show,  does  not  stickle  for 
chronologj',  and  indeed  in  this  very  play,  by  his  truly  Elizabethan 
handling,  has  got  Bandello's  chronology  into  such  a  state  that  it  would 
be  impossible  to  allude  intelligibly,  without  mentioning  them  by 
name,  to  anj^  king  or  court  of  France  historically  in  keeping.  ^  Had 
he  meant  such,  moreover,  he  must  certainly  have  named  them  for  the 
audience'  sake.  As  for  the  third  alternative,  that  it  is  a  purely  fan- 
ciful and  random  statement  is  highly  improbable,  unlike  Webster  and 
his  time.  True,  there  are  plays  of  the  pastoral  or  romantic  type 
which  deal  with  kings,  courts,  and  people  in  a  land  of  nowhere,  — 
not  in  France,  though,  but  in  Pannonia,  Dacia,  Africa,  or  Sicilia  ;  — 
but  always  in  full,  as  the  scene  of  the  very  improbable  action,  not,  as 
here,  in  a  passing  allusion,  directed  away  from  the  scene  of  action. 
Passing  allusions  when  without  definite  names  or  dates  (that  is,  jokes, 
satirical  remarks,  political  judgments,  etc.)  prove,  even  in  Roman 
plays,  almost  always  to  be  anachronistic,  to  be  directed  toward  con- 
temporary affairs.  For,  by  the  Elizabethan  dramaturgy  characters, 
even  ideas,  language,  customs,  and  civilization,  were  generally  con- 
ceived and  represented,  not  with  a  historic  sense,  but  —  be  the  time  or 
scene  of  action  never  so  far  removed  —  really  as  coeval,  Elizabethan  ; 
hence,  the  insertion  of  allusions  to  contemporary  affairs  and  events 
did  not  jar.  King  Lear,"^  Othello,  Romeo  and  Juliet,  Heywood's 
Rape  of  Lucrece,  Webster's  Appius  and  Virginia,  ancient  stories 
though  they  be,  contain  such  :  others  would  not  have  been  under- 
stood. And  in  the  case  of  Malfi  (we  take  up  the  last  alternative)  an 
allusion  to  the  French  king  and  court,  standing  at  the  very  beginning 
of  the  play,  with  nothing  in  the  shape  of  title,  scene  of  action,  or  pre- 
ceding time-references  to  make  the  audience  think  otherwise,  could 
not,  if  it  fit  at  all,  mean  to  the  audience,  or  be  intended  to  mean  to 
it,  anything  else  than  the  contemporary  French  king  and  court. 

Does  it  fit?  L/Ct  me  repeat  the  story  of  the  D'Ancre  affair  in  brief, 
and  then  consider  Webster's  words  in  detail.  Mary  de'  Medici,  as 
queen   regent  since  the  assassination  of  her  consort   Henry  IV,  in 


*  It  must,  according  to  Bandello,  have  been  King  I^ewis's  court  (see  footnote, 
p.  23)  that  Antonio  saw.  Yet  in  III,  3,  8  I^annoy  is  spoken  of  as  having  taken  "  the 
French  king  prisoner,"  which  must  have  been  Francis  I  at  Pa  via.  As  Kiesow  says 
(pp.  243-4) .  the  date  of  action  has  been  brought  down  a  decade.  Moreover,  on  p.  160, 
in  his  reference  to  Gaston  de  Foix's  recovery  of  Naples  in  1501,  W.,  through  a  care- 
less treatment  of  his  original,  as  Sampson  (p.  386)  observes,  is  making  him  take  a 
city  at  12  years  old. 

'  The  "  late  eclipses  "  in  Lear,  I,  2,  112  ;  "  hands  not  hearts  "  in  Othello,  III,  4,  46  ; 
the  earthquake  in  R.  (2f  J.,  I,  3,  23  ;  countless  ones  in  Lncrece  :  and  some  in  Corbulo's 
and  the  lector's  talk  — such  as  "prayer  book."  "lawyers  and  term  time,"  "the 
suburbs,"  the  oath  Appius  took  as  knight,  etc.,  —in  A.(Sf  V. 

24 


1610,  had,  through  her  own  incapacity  and  by  the  baneful  influence 
of  the  rapacious,  tyrannical  Concini  and  his  wife,  speedily  brought 
France  back  into  a  state  of  anarchy  and  misery.  The  nobles  were 
indignant  and  disaffected,  and  the  people  heavily  burdened  and  in 
want.  The  young  king,  Lewis  XIII,  moreover,  chafed  at  the  conde- 
scension and  insolence  of  the  Concini,  and  at  the  insignificance  of 
his  position  ;  and,  incited  by  his  friends,  he  resolved  to  assert  himself. 
When  all  was  ready,  on  the  morning  of  April  14th.  1617, '  a  certain 
captain  of  the  guard,  Baron  de  Vitri,  arrested  Concini  as  he  was  enter- 
ing the  Ivouvre;  and,  as  the  official  report  averred,  on  a  show  of 
resistance,  shot  him  dead.  Immediately,  a  demonstration  was  made 
by  the  King's  friends,  a  proclamation  issued  announcing  the  King's 
assumption  of  power  into  his  own  hands,  and  a  Council  summoned  of 
his  father's  ministers.  The  Concini  faction  was  either  arrested,  or 
expelled  from  office  and  the  city  ;  the  Queen  Mother  herself,  relegated 
to  Blois.  Now  the  Council  sat  daily ;  virtuous,  sober  proclamations 
were  issued;  and  an  Assembly  of  Notables  was  called  to  Rouen,  to 
accomplish  what  the  States-general  under  Concini  had  utterly  failed 
to  do.  Bver5rwhere  in  Paris  and  through  France  the  news  of  the  event 
was  heard  with  joy,  and  young  Lewis  was  hailed  by  his  people  as  the 

Just.- 

/«  seeking  to  reduce  both  State,  and  People 
To  a  fix  'rf  Order,  there  iuditious  King 
Begins  at  home  :  Quits  first  his  Royal  I  Pal  lace 
Of  flattring  Sicophants,  etc. 

This  is  what  Louis  did  :  such  was  the  state  of  his  realm.  The  last 
States-general  rife  with  dissension  and  fruitless  in  outcome,  ^  a  people 
everywhere  clamorous,  an  insurrection  raging  in  the  south,  and  a 
palace  swarming  with  'sicophants,'  'dissolute, '  '  infamous  '  Italians  and 
Spaniards,  — such  a  spectacle  meant  neither  to  French  nor  to  English 
eyes  a  '  fix'  d  order.'  And  one  of  the  first  steps  Lewis  took  to  better 
it  was  to  purge  the  palace,  — to  imprison  Barbin,  Mangot,*  La  Place, 
Oquincourt,  Nardy,  Concini 's  wife  and  some  of  his  confidants^,  and 

'  Brockh  us,  14th  ed.,  art.  Ancre;  Martin  says  (ed.  1844).  vol.  XII,  p.  345.  the  24th, 
and  Btog.  GSn.  (ed.  1855),  the  same.  Brock,  must  be  right,  for  the  first  entry  in  the 
S.  R.  (see  below,  p.  29,  note)  is  on  the  17th. 

*  Martin,  ed.  1858,  tome  XI,  pp.  118-19.  Bazin.  France  sous  Louis  XIII,  Paris,  1840, 
*.  II.  p.  2  f.  There  is  nothing  ambiguous  in  the  attitude  of  all  France.  "  Chacun 
vantait  le  coup  d'essai  de  lyouis." 

^  Gardiner,  II.  p.  315;  Martin,  ed.  1858,  XI,  86;  and  Louis's  own  words  in  his 
Declaration  qui  convoque  ^  Rouen  une  assembl6e  de  Notables.  Isambert  et  Decrusy, 
Recueil  G6n6ral,  t.  XVI,  p.  108  f :  "n'avaient  produit  autre  fruit  sinon  que  les  remon- 
strances, plaints,  et  dol^ances."  *  Martin,  ed.  1858,  tome  XI,  pp.  117-18' 

"  Relation  Exacte  de  Tout  ce  qui  s^est  PassS  d.  la  Mort  du  Mareschal  D' Ancre  in 
Michaud  et  Poujoulat,  S4rie  II,  t.  V,  p.  464.     Martin  says  Mangot  was  distiiui  only. 

25 


to  have  proclaimed  that  evening,  at  the  sound  of  the  trumpet,  that  all 
those  in  the  service  of  Concini  should  leave  the  city  on  pain  of  death. 
The  Spanish  Ambassador  he  directed  to  refrain  from  acting  further  as 
'major-domo  to  the  reigning  queen,' ^  The  Queen  herself,  one  of 
the  worst  of  the  crew,  he  kept,  after  the  loss  of  her  greatest  sicophant^ 
under  surveillance,  and  shortly  relegated  to  Blois.  ^  And  in  one  of  his 
first  proclamations  he  made  known  '  that  he  had  besought  the  queen, 
his  lady  and  mother,  to  grant  that  he  himself  from  now  on  take  in 
hand  the  manage  of  the  state,  in  order  that  he  might  rescue  it  from 
the  straits  to  which  the  evil  counsels  she  had  followed  had  reduced  it. '  ^ 

Which  he  sweetly  termes 
His  Master'' s  Master- peece  {the  worke  of  Heaueti) . 

The  source  of  this  notion  of  Webster's  is,  I  think,  the  French  King's 
Letter  to  the  Parliament  of  Rouan,  in  1617  *  : 

A  disseigne  which  they  so  wrought  and  effected,  that  hitherto  Wee  carried  bu^ 
onely  the  bare  Name  of,  and  title  of  a  King :  .  .  .  Which  God  of  his  infinite  bountie 
giving  Us  the  grace  at  last  to  discerne,  and  pointing  out  unto  Us  as  it  were  with  his 
omnipotent  finger,  the  imminent  perill  that  hung  over  our  person  and  State, 
through  such  an  insatiable  and  irregular  ambition  ;  Wee  gave  testimonie  at  length 
of  our  apprehension  at  this  point,  .  .  .  yet  were  Wee  enforced  in  all  our  exterior 
actions,  to  disguise  and  cover  that,  which  inwardly  in  heart  Wee  determined  and 
resolved  upon,  while  it  might  please  the  same  our  good  God  to  open  us  a  fit  way,  and 
convenient  opportunity  to  apply  thereunto  some  prevalent  remedy.  .  .  .  Moved  I  say, 
by  these  just  and  most  weightie  considerations  and  by  the  heavenly  instinct,  that  God 
upon  this  occasion  put  into  our  heart :  Wee  resolved  to  secure  Our  self  of  the  person 
of  the  said  Marshall  D'Ancre,  giving  express  charge  to  Sieur  de  Vitry,  Captaine  of 
Our  Guards,  to  apprehend  and  arrest  him  within  Our  Castle  of  the  lyouvre.  The 
which  Our  pleasure  hee  intending  to  put  into  execution,  the  said  Marshall  (who 
according  to  his  accustomed  manner  had  many  followers  about  him)  himself  with 
some  others  of  his  company  made  offer  to  resist :  whereupon  certain  bullets,  etc.  " 

^  Relation  Exacte,  p.  470. 

'  See  her  despicable  conduct  in  Martin  above.  And  see  Martin,  ed.  1844(1  quote  this 
because  ed.  1858  has  since  become  inaccessible  to  me),  XII,  345,  note,  where  account 
is  taken  of  the  popular  opinion  of  illicit  relations  between  her  and  Concini.  In  fact, 
there  is  quite  enough  in  the  fame  of  the  queen  and  her  minions  in  that  day,  both  in 
France  and  in  England,  to  warrant  W.'s  phrases,  "dissolute  and  infamous  persons," 
"  curs  't  example." 

'  Martin,  ed.  1858,  t.  XI,  p.  119,  "  les  mauvais  conseils  dont  elle  s'etait  servie." 

*  In  the  Brit.  Mus.,  marked  8050,  bbb.  56,  Reg.  Apr.  23rd,  1617,  —  a  proof  of  the 
popular  interest  in  Eng.  — The  italics  in  this  passage  are  mine. 

'  The  interpretation  thus  offered  for  "Which  .  .  .  Heauen  "  above  — that  the 
cleansing  of  the  palace,  etc.,  was  God's  work  through  him  —  seems  to  me  the  more 
certain  as  I  consider  other  interpretations.  Vaughan,  who  did  not  take  his  own 
suggestion  seriously,  thinks  the  antecedent  of  which  to  be  Pallace!  And  Sampson 
(p.  385)  :  "  possibly  '  order,'  but  probably  '  persons,'  i.  e.,  man,  being  the  chief  work 
of  the  creator."  That  is,  this  king,  whoever  he  be,  "  sweetly  termes  "  these  "  infa- 
mous persons  "  he  is  chasing  away,  his  Master's  Masterpieces!    The  neatness  with 

26 


And  what  is  7  makes  this  blessed  gouernmeni, 
But  a  most  prouident  Councell,  who  dare  freely 
Informe  him  the  corruption  of  the  times  ? 

On  his  first  appearance,  immediately  after  the  murder,  the  King 
cried,  Lou6  soit  Dieu,  me  voyla  Roy:  qu'on  m'aille  querir  les  vieux 
serviteurs  du  feu  Roy  mon  pere,  et  anciens  conseillers  de  mon  conseil 
d'Bstat,  C'est  par  le  conseil  de  ceux-la  que  je  me  veux  gouverner 
desormais.^  He  was  as  good  as  his  word .  Villeroi,  Jeannin,  du  Vair, 
de  Silleri  and  his  son  were  summoned ;  the  Concini  faction,  except 
Richelieu,  were  expelled  ;  and  the  Council  sat  daily. -^  The  King  met 
wdth  them,  and  is  recorded  as  having  given  judicious  and  worthy 
opinions.^  When  appealed  to  by  his  subjects  about  important  meas- 
ures, he  constantly  deferred  all  promises  till  he  should  have  delib- 
erated with  his  council.*  And  on  the  4th  of  October,  1617,  he  issued 
an  edict '"  convoking  an  Assembly  of  Notables  at  Rouen,  of  59  mem- 
bers only,  — not  a  States-general  but  a  "council,"  rather,  —  'a  body 
selected  and  small  enough,'  according  to  his  words,  'to  be  wieldy  and 
practical,  which  should  consider  the  reformation  of  the  abuses  which 
are  to  be  found  in  all  the  orders  of  the  realm'  :  and  he  solemnly 
adjures  them  all,  by  the  authority  God  has  given  him  over  them,  que 
sans  autres  respect  ni  consideration  quelquonque,  crainte  ou  d^sir  de 
plaire  ou  complaire  a  personne,  ils  nous  donnent  en  toutes  franchise 
et  sincerite  les  conseils  qu'ils  jugeront  en  leurs  consciences  les  plus 
salutaires  et  convenables.  As  for  English  reports,  in  A  True  Recital 
of  Those  Things  That  Have  Been  Done  in  the  Court  of  France  since 
the  Death  of  Marshall  D'Ancre,  London,  1617,^  the  King  is  reported 
as  saying,  * '  that  he  would  give  order  to  his  Councill  that  the  abuses 
that  had  crept  into  his  affairs  should  be  remedied  by  good  advice  and 
counsell.'"^  And  in  A  True  Relation  of  the  Deserved  Death  of  the 
Marquis  d'Ancre,  etc.,  1617,*  a  full  account,  quite  similar  to  the 
French,  is  given  of  the  summoning  of  the  Council  and  of  the  recall 
of  Villeroi. 

The  allusion  fits,  then,  — fits  as  well  as  the  vague  language  addressed 
to  an  audience  which  understands,  and  describing  in  a  few  lines,  not 
events,  but  mere  sober  effects  and  conditions,  would  permit.     Now  it 


which  K.  lycwis  XIII's  words  fit  the  passage  when  we  construe  it  as,  to  make  sense, 
it  must  be  construed  —  which  referring  to  the  clause  "  Quits  .  .  .  persons  "  — is  to 
my  mind  cogent  argument  that  W.  here  had  them  in  mind. 
^  Relation  Exacte,  Mich,  et  Pou.,  V,  p.  458. 

*  Relation  Exacte,  pp.  466,  467,  469,  470,  471,  472  :  often  two  or  three  times  a  day. 
'  Relation  Exacte,  pp.  466,  467.  *  Registered  May  8th. 

*  Relation  Exacte,  pp.  462  a,  462  b.  '  Pp.  11,  12. ' 

*  In  Isambert  et  Decrusy.  t.  XVI,  p.  108  f.  *  P.  14.  Brit.  Mus.  copy. 

27 


could  fit  no  other  possible  king  or  court  of  France,  and  no  other  period 
than  shortly  after  April,  1617.  Before  that,  as  far  back  as  the  death 
of  Henry  IV,  in  1610,  there  was  no  king  in  power,  and  no  state  of 
affairs  an  Englishman  would  "  admire."  And  by  a  year  after  April, 
1617,  it  would  have  been  evident  that  Lewis  XIII  had  only  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  another  set  of  minions.^  But  within  the  year  the  court 
and  king  of  France  would  seem,  especially  so  far  away  as  in  England, 
as  Webster  describes  them.  Lewis  was  beginning  with  such  promise  : 
he  had  put  an  end  to  the  rebellion  in  the  south,  and  had  made  peace 
between  Savoy  and  Spain  ^;  himself  freed  from  Spanish  control,  he 
was  now  busied  with  measures  of  justice,  and  schemes  of  legislation 
and  improvement ;  he  bore  as  yet  the  title  of  the  Just.  The  allusion 
can  be  to  no  other  than  him. 

But  did  England  feel  like  France  ?  What  warrant  for  our  finding 
admiration  of  Lewis  in  Webster  is  there  in  what  we  know  of  the  Eng- 
lish attitude  ?  ' '  The  cry  of  exultation  which  was  raised  in  France, ' ' 
says  Mr.  Gardiner,  '^  ' '  was  echoed  in  all  Protestant  lands.  The  Queen- 
Mother  had  always  been  regarded  as  the  chief  supporter  of  the  Spanish 
party.  Even  James  was  carried  away  by  the  tide,  and  for  once  found 
himself  giving  expression  to  opinions  in  complete  accordance  with 
those  of  Win  wood  and  Raleigh.  .  .  .  James  wrote  to  congratulate  the 
young  sovereign  of  France."  And  the  interest  of  the  people  is 
attested  by  the  activity  of  the  press.  A  dozen  or  more  of  pamphlets 
relating  to  the  affair,  bearing  the  date  of  1617,  are  still  preserved  in 
the  British  Museum^;  and  there  are  seven  entries  of  books  in  the 
Stationers'  Register,  from  the  17th  of  April  to  the  3rd  of  June,  1617, 
three  of  which  :are  of  books  not  to  be  identified  with  any  of  those  pre- 

^  After  the  abrupt  dissolution  of  the  Assembl^e  at  Rouen,  in  the  spring  and  sum- 
mer of  1618,  when  the  duplicity,  tyranny,  and  rapacity  of  lyUynescame  to  light,  and 
the  king  broke  his  promises  (Martin,  ed.  1844,  XII,  364-7).  Whereas  (XII,  353,  359) 
"  I^e  gouvemement  de  I,ouis  XIII  avait  tout  propice  au  d^but ";  "  les  premiers  temps 
du  gouvemement  .  .  .  furent  cependant  assez  prosp^res." 

""  Signed  at  Pavia,  Oct.  9th,  1617.  Bazin,  Louis  XIII,  t.  II,  p.  37.  Cf.  Martin,  ed.  1844. 
XII,  p.  359,  where  the  good  effect,  at  home  and  abroad,  of  I,ewis's  conduct  in  this 
connection  is  discussed.  '  Gardiner,  III,  p.  109. 

*  Ten  bound  together,  marked  8050.  bbb.  56.  Besides  those  already  cited: 
1.  The  True  Relation  of  the  Deserved  Death  of  that  Base  and  Insolent  Tryant,  The 
Marquis  d'Ancre,  the  most  unworthie  Marshall  of  France,  etc.  2.  Oration  made  unto 
ike  French  King  by  Deputies  of  the  National  Synode  of  the  Reformed  Church.  3.  Last 
IVill  and  Testament  of  the  Marquis,  etc.  4.  Arraignmetit  of  Marquis,  etc.  5.  Fitneral 
Obsequies  and  Buriall  of  the  Marquis,  etc.  6.  The  Ghost  of  the  Marquisse  D'Ancre 
.  .  .  and  Mosequin  a  deluding  spirit  by  whome  her  husband  was  misled.  Another,  of 
the  same  date,  is  The  Tears  of  the  Marshall  D'Ancre's  Wife,  shed  for  the  death  of  her 
husband.  — This  "  True  Relation  "  (the  first  entered  in  S.  R.,  see  below)  gives  a  very 
circumstantial  account  of  all  events,  including  the  purging  of  the  palace. 

28 


served.  The  entries  themselves  indicate  the  keenest  popular  interest, 
for  the  first  of  them  are  entered  only  three  or  four  days  after  the 
event  itself ;  and  the  titles  betray  naively  the  animus  of  the  writers 
and  of  their  public.^  Even  the  stage  responded,  for,  on  June  22nd 
1617,  the  Privy  Council  wrote  to  Sir  George  Buc,  Master  of  the  Revels, 
* '  to  have  special  care  that  an  enterlude  concerning  the  late  Marquis 
D'Ancre  should  not  be  performed."  ^ 

The  evidence,  then,  is  pretty  conclusive  that  Malfi  alludes  to  Lewis 
XIII,  at  a  time  not  long  after  the  assassination  of  Concini ;  and  itself, 
therefore,  falls  within  the  year  1617,  after  April.  To  this  let  me  add, 
however,  yet  one  argument.^  Orazio  Busino,  chaplain  to  Pietro 
Contarini,  Venetian  Ambassador,  left  among  his  manuscripts,  now 
preserved  in  the  Librarj^  of  St.  Mark,*  one  entitled  Anglipotrida,  a 
miscellaneous  collection  of  notes  on  his  experiences  in  England.  In 
the  '  second  appendix  '  there  is  this  : 

Prendouo  giuoco  gli  Inglesi  della  nostra  religrione  come  di  cosa  detestabile,  et 
snperstitiosa,  ne  mai  rappresentano  qualsivogrlia  attione  pubblica,  sia  pura  Tragisati- 
ricomica,  che  non  inserischino  dentro  uitij,  et  scelleragini  di  q'lche  religrioso  catol- 
ico,  facendone  risate,  et  molti  scherni,  con  lor  gusto,  et  ramarico  de'  buoni,  fu 
appunto  veduto  dai  nostri,  in  una  Commedia  introdur'  un  frate  franciscano,  astuto,  et 
ripieno  di  varie  inipiet^,  cosi  d'avaritia  come  di  libidine  ;  et  il  tutto  poi  riusci  in  una 
Tragedia,  facendoli  mozzar  la  vista  in  scena.  Un  altra  volta  rappresentarono  la 
grandezza  d'un  card.'*  con  li  habiti  formali,  et  proprij  molti  belli,  et  ricchi,  con  la 
sua  Corte,  facendo  in  scena  erger  un  Altare,  dove  finse  di  far  orat.°*,  ordinando  una 
processione  ;  et  poi  lo  ridussero  in  pubblico  con  una  Meretrice  in  seno.  Dimostrd  di 
■dar  il  Velleno  ad  una  sua  sorella,  per  interesse  d'honore;  et  d'andar  in  oltre  alia 
guerra,  con  depponer  prima  I'habito  cardinalitio  sopra  I'altare  col  mezzo  de'  suoi 
Cappell."'  con  gravity,  et  finalm."'"  si  fece  cingere  la  spada,  metterlaserpa,*  con  tan  to 
garbo,  che  niente  piu ;  et  tutto  ci6  fanno  in  sprezzo,  delle  grandezze  ecclesiast.'**  vili- 
pese,  et  odiate  a  morte  in  q'sto  Regno.  Di  L,ondra  a'  7  feb.**"  1618. 


^  The  first  entries  are  actually  Apr.  17th,  A  True  Relation  of  the  Death  of  the 
Marquis  D'Ancre,  and  Apr.  23rd.  The  first,  on  the  third  day  after,  indicates  a 
journalistic  enterprise  almost  unbelievable  of  that  day.  The  entries  and  pamphlets 
all  of  one  accord  approve  the  deed. 

"^  Fleay,  Hist.  Stage,  p.  309.  Mr.  Fleay  adds,  "no  doubt  Thierry  and  Theodorety 
There  is  much  doubt,  though.  Cf.  Thomdike's  Influence  of  B.  (2f  F.  on  Shak. ,  p.  75  f. 
And  I  w^ould  add  to  his  arguments  that  the  name  de  Vitri  occurs  as  that  of  a 
character  in  Chap.'s  Trag.  of  Byron,  pub.  1608;  and  that  the  Conspiracy  of  Byron , 
pub.  at  the  same  time,  contains  an  astrologer  and  astrology,  as  do  others  of  Chap.'s 
plays. 

'  A  writer  in  the  Quarterly  Rev.  for  1859,  in  his  review  of  a  translation  of  Busino's 
journals  and  despatches  hy  Rawdon  Brown  ("  not  published  "  then,  and  so  far  as  I 
can  discover  at  the  Brit.  Mus.  still  not  pub.) ,  adds  in  a  note  that  Busino  describes  a 
play  in  1618  that  must  be  Malfi.    Ward  repeats  this,  HI,  p.  59. 

*  CI.  VII.     Cod.  M.  C.  XXII. 

*  Serpa  it  is,  very  distinctly  written.  No  suitable  meaning  is  to  be  found  in  any 
■dictionary  that  has  come  to  my  notice.  Nor  have  Venetians  whom  I  have  asked 
been  able  to  explain  it.    It  must  mean  sciarPa,  which  is  the  Italian  for  scarf,  mili- 

29 


Busino  does  not  say  he  himself  saw  the  play  ;  and  if  he  did,  it  is 
not  likely  that  he  understood  much  of  it.  The  movements  on  the 
stage  are  what  impressed  him  and  what  he  describes.  With  this  in 
mind,  nothing  could  seem  to  fit  Busino's  description  better  than  Malfi. 
In  Act  II,  sc.  4,  Webster's  Cardinal  appears  with  his  mistress  Julia 
alone,  ^  and  very  likely  with  her  in  his  lap  :  and  in  Act  III,  sc.  4,  he 
goes  through  all  the  ceremony  of  laying  aside  ecclesiastical  vest- 
ments, with  the  assistance  of  *  churchmen, '  and  of  accoutring  himself 
with  '  sword,'  shield,  and  spurs.  His  making  show  of  giving  poison 
to  his  sister  in  the  interest  of  her  honor  (if  it  means  that)  might  be 
the  banishment  of  the  duchess  in  dumb-show,  in  the  same  scene,  ^  as 
it  appeared  to  an  Italian  spectator  ;  and  the  erection  of  the  altar  and 
the  prayer  might  easily  be  some  of  the  * '  business  ' '  introduced  in  one 
of  several  scenes  in  the  play,  as  at  the  beginning  of  Act  II,  sc.  2,  he 
himself  reappearing  immediatelj'  after  with  Julia  in  his  lap.  True, 
the  evidence  is  not  conclusive  ;  though  Malfi  fits  the  description  far 
better  than  any  other  known  play,  the  real  play  may  not  have  come 
down  to  us.  But  the  date  of  that  play,  at  any  rate,  harmonizes  admir- 
ably with  that  which  we  had  already  attained  for  Malfi  —  the  latter 
half  of  the  year  1617.^ 

VII.     THE  DEVIL'S  LAW-CASE. 

The  DeviVs  Law- Case  was  published  in  1623,  again  without  register- 
ing at  the  Stationers'.  Fleay  "*  comes  at  the  date  1610  by  adding 
Romelio's  38  years  of  age  to  the  year  of  his  birth  ^  (the  year  after 
Lepanto,  i.  e.,  1572)  ;  and  by  drawing  conclusions  to  the  same  effect 
from  the  waiting-woman's  asseverations  —  though  she  is  lying! — as 
to  her  remembering  two  great  frosts,  three  great  plagues,  and   the 

tary  scarf.  This  in  the  Venetian  dialect  takes  the  form  siarpa  or  sierPa.  See 
^Boerio,  Dtz.  del  dialetto  Venez.,  Venezia,  1856.  This  meaning  suits  the  text  admir- 
ably.   It  was  suggested  by  Dr.  Hartmann. 

*  Also  in  V,  2. 

*  This  and  the  investiture,  observe,  are  linked  together  in  Busino's  account. 

'  The  date  of  this  account  (see  above)  is  Feb.  7,  1618.  Busino  says  (see  above)  un 
ultra  volta,  as  if  some  time  ago.  The  embassy  started,  according  to  his  Relazione 
del  Viaggio,  Sept.  2nd,  1617  ;  and  his  first  letter  from  London  he  dates  Oct.  8th,  1617.  — 
The  work  of  Mr.  Sampson  on  the  dates  of  the  plays  W.  D.  and  Mai.  seems  rather 
fruitless,  particularly  in  view  of  his  conclusion  that  the  date  of  the  publishing  of 
IV.  D.  (1612)  may  be  the  date  of  the  composition  of  Mai.,  and  his  doubt  whether 
Mai.  may  not  have  preceded  W.  D.  /  (xliv) .  And  think  of  settling  the  date  of 
JV.  D.  by  allusions  to  Ariosto  so  uncertain  as  on  p.  187  (cf.  xl),  or  by  an  allusion 
to  Verton's  mulberry-planting,  in  1609,  which  amounts  to  the  word  silkworm  (pp.  188 
and  xl)  ! 

*  Btog.  Chr.,  II,  272-3.  *  D.  L.  C.  IV,  2  (not  II,  4.  as  Fleay  says) ,  pp.  87,  93,  95 

30 


taking  of  Calais.  As  if  the  date  of  the  action  had  to  be  coincident 
with  that  of  the  first  performance  ;  or  as  if  Webster's  audiences,  or  he 
himself,  sat  and  counted  up  time-references  ! 

More  to  the  point  is  the  allusion,  found  by  Dyce,  to  the  Massacre  of 
Amboyna,  Feb.,  1623  ^: 

Sec.  Surg.  How?  go  to  the  East  Indies!  and  so  many  Hollanders  gone  to  fetch 
sauce  for  their  pickled  herrings  !  some  have  been  peppered  there  too  lately. 

D.L.C.D.m. 
Yet  the  connection  is  impossible,  for  it  is  now  known,  as  Mr.  Fleay^ 
points  out,  that  the  news  of  the  massacre  did  not  reach  England  until 
May,  1624.  But  Dyce's  scent  was,  as  usual,  true;  he  rightly  recog- 
nized an  allusion  to  contemporary  affairs,  and  he  could  have  verified 
it,  had  he  only  turned  back  a  little,  to  the  earlier  troubles  between  the 
English  and  Dutch  in  the  East  Indies.  Such  verification  is  to  be 
found,  I  think,  in  Gardiner  : 

In  August  [1619]  the  '  Star '  arrived  from  England  bringing  news  of  the  opening 
of  negotiations  in  I,ondon.  As  no  treaty  had  been  signed  at  the  date  of  its  depart- 
ure, the  Dutch  seized  the  vessel,  and  despatched  six  ships  to  Sumatra  to  look  out  for 
English  traders.  On  the  coast  they  found  four  of  the  Company's  vessels  busily 
engaged  in  lading  pepper.  The  captain  of  one  of  these,  the  'Bear,'  had  met  Sir 
Thomas  Roe  at  the  Cape  on  his  return  from  India.  It  happened  that  a  new  Dutch 
admiral  also  had  been  there  on  his  outward  voyage,  with  whom  Roe  had  opened 
communications,  which  had  ended  in  an  agreement  that  hostilities  should  be  sus- 
pended till  the  result  of  the  negotiations  in  lyondon  could  be  known.  In  the  sudden- 
ness of  the  attack  this  agreement  was  either  not  produced,  or  was  disregarded.  One 
of  the  English  ships,  the  '  Dragon,'  was  forced  to  surrender,  after  a  combat  of  an 
hour's  duration,  and  the  other  three  were  too  much  encilmbered  with  their  lading 
even  to  attempt  a  defence.  The  prisoners  were  treated  with  the  greatest  inhumanity, 
and  many  of  the  wounded  died  from  exposure  to  the  rain  upon  the  open  deck. 
Amongst  the  prizes  on  board,  the  Dutch  sailors  found  a  handsome  knife,  which  had 
been  sent  out  as  a  present  from  the  King  to  the  native  sovereign  of  Acheen.  They 
carried  it  about  the  deck  in  uproarious  procession,  shouting  out  at  the  top  of  their 
voices,  "  Thou  hast  lost  thy  dagger,  Jemmy."  A  few  days  later  two  other  English 
vessels  were  taken  at  Patani,  and  the  captain  of  one  of  them  was  killed. 

Vol.  Ill,  pp.  180-1. 

This,  you  see,  was  no  insignificant  event ;  it  must  have  excited 
public  interest ;  and  the  pun  on  "  pepper  "^  would  have  been,  then  as 
now,  inevitable.  Now  the  news  of  Amboyna  reached  England,  as  we 
have  seen,  after  a  year  and  three  months  ;  that  of  the  treaty  signed 
June  2nd,  1619,  reached  the  East  Indies  on  March  8th  of  the  following 
year*:  so,  allowing  the  same  interval,  we  may  reckon  the  backward 
limit  of  the  DeviV s  Law-Case  to  be  the  end  of  1620. 


*  Dyce  says  wrongly,  1622.  *  Biog.  Chr.,  II,  272  :  cf.  Gardiner,  vol.  V.  p.  242. 

'  That  the  verb  "  pepper  "  was  then  commonly  thus  u.sed  is  proved  by  /  Hen.  IV, 
II,  4,  212  ;  V.  3,  37  ;  R.(2f  J.,  Ill,  1.  102  ;  Hoff.,  1. 1473  ;  Mass.  Virg.  Mart.,  p.  18 ;  Hum. 
Lieut.,  p.  238  ;  etc.  *  Gardiner,  Vol.  III.  p.  181. 

•     31 


Should  the  date  be  rather  thrust  on,  however,  nearer  the  forward 
limit  ?  Such  a  question  is  to  be  raised  in  connection  with  the  possible 
indebtedness  of  the  Devil's  Law-Case  to  the  Spanish  Curate,  ^  or  to 
the  Fair  Maid  of  the  Inn.  The  last  is  entirely  to  be  excluded  from 
consideration  by  reason  of  explicit  mention  of  the  Massacre  of 
Amboyna,^  and  its  having  been  licensed  (though  written,  of  course, 
earlier)'^  only  in  1626.'^  And  as  for  the  Spanish  Curate  and  the 
DeviVs  Law-Case,  they  may  very  well  have  been  produced  independ- 
ently, deriving  the  law-case  story,  their  only  point  of  contact,  the  one 
only  from  Gerardo,  and  the  other  from  the  old  play,  Lusfs  Dominion  ; 
or  the  DeviVs  Law-Case  itself  may  have  influenced  the  Spanish 
Curate.  ^  However  that  be,  it  is  to  be  considered  improbable  that  the 
DeviVs  Law-Case  followed  the  Spanish  Curate,  by  reason  of  two  con- 
siderations :  first,  the  lack  of  any  reference  to  Dutch  or  East  India 
troubles  in  the  Spanish  Curate,  and  the  presence  of  so  pointed  a  refer- 
ence —  "  lately  "  — in  the  DeviVs  Law-Case ;  second,  the  nature  of  the 
vicissitudes  of  the  Queen's  Men.  As  to  the  latter  point,  Webster's 
play,  according  to  the  title-page,  was  '  *  approvedly  well  Acted  by  her 
Majesties  Servants."  Now  Queen  Anne  died  in  March,  1619,  and  there 
were  no  real  Queen's  Servants  again  till  the  time  of  Henrietta,  June, 
1625.^  Still  hanging  together,  however,  on  the  8th  of  July,  1622,  they 
obtained  a  Privy  Seal  for  a  new  company  to  be  called  the  ' '  Children 
of  the  Revels."^  In  the  meantime  they  had  continued  to  act  at  the 
Red  BulP  ;  but  under  what  name?  Under  the  old  one  of  Queen's 
Servants,  of  course,  until  they  received  the  patent  for  the  new  one.  ^ 
It  must  have  been  before  that,  therefore,  that  they  acted  the  DeviVs 
Law-Case.  ^^  The  date  of  the  play  must  be  from  the  end  of  1620  to 
July,  1622. 

*  I,ic.  by  Herbert,  Oct.  24.  1622  (Fleay,  Hist.,  p.  301). 
'  B.  &  F..  Works,  II,  p.  374. 

^  Herbert  says  expressly,  "by  Fletcher":  so,  before  his  death,  Aug.  1625.  And 
after  Amboyna :  so  after  May,  1624. 

*  In  Herbert's  Office  Book,— Jan.  22nd,  1626. 

*  /.  e.,  Gerardo  the  Unfortunate  Spaniard,  translated  by  Leonard  Digges  (lyondon, 
1622) ,  the  general  source  of  the  .S"^.  Cur.  For  a  discussion  of  this  whole  matter  see 
below,  Chap.  IV. 

*  Fleay's  Hist.,  p.  321.  ''  Though  a  men's  company,  Fleay 's  Hist.,  p.  270. 

*  Fleay's  Hist.,  p.  272.  I  know  no  other  authority,  yet  Fleay  must  be  right.  The 
D.  L.  C,  as  we  have  seen,  must  be  considerably  later  than  Mar.  2nd,  1619,  and  yet  it 
was  acted  by  "  Her  Majesties  Servants." 

®  Mr.  Fleay  seems  of  the  opinion  that  at  Queen  Anne's  death  the  Company  went 
on  playing  without  any  name.  Of  the  acting  of  Z).  L.  C.  he  says,  simply,  "  and 
therefore  before  1619."    Mr.  Sidney  I^ee  repeats  this  {Diet.  Nat.  Bios.,  art.  IVebster). 

*"  The  company  may,  of  course,  have  kept  the  old  name  popularly,  even  after  the 
Privy  Seal :  but  not  likely,  after  an  official  designation  was  at  hand,  on  the  title- 

32 


VIII.     APPIUS   AND   VIRGINIA. 

Appius  and  Virginia  was  first  published,  so  far  as  is  known,  in 
1654.  An  Appius  and  Virginia  stands  last  in  a  list  of  their  own 
plays,  drawn  up  in  August,  1639,  by  William  Beeston,  governor  of  the 
Cockpit  Company  ^  ;  and  as  the  only  other  Appius  and  Virginia 
known  is  antiquated,  dull,  and  childish,  a  specimen  not  possibly  to  be 
played  by  a  royal  company  in  the  day  of  Massinger  and  Shirley,  this 
must  be  Webster's. ^  No  other  precise  data  are  at  hand.  But  the 
play  is  not  mentioned  in  the  preface  to  the  Z^^Z'//'^  Zazez-Gz^^/  and 
that  it  was  written  after  that,  after  1623,  appears  from  the  evidence 
(to  be  produced  later)  -^  that  it  is  indebted  to  Shakspere,  especially  to 
his  Roman  plays,  and  in  so  precise  and  circumstantial  a  manner  as  to 
indicate  the  use  of  the  First  Folio.  A  nearer  forward  limit  than  that 
of  Beeston 's  list  is  unattainable,  for  the  date  of  Webster's  death  is 
unknown.^  We  must  content  ourselves,  therefore,  with  the  date 
1623-39.^ 

IX.     A   CURE   FOR   A   CUCKOLD. 

Webster  and  Rowley's  Cure  for  a  Cuckold  was  first  published  in 
1661.  It  contains  an  allusion,  long  recognized,  to  Middleton  and 
Rowley's  Fair  Quarrel : 

Pett.     .  .  .  and  there  falls  in  league  with  a  wench. 

Comp.    A  Tweak  or  Bronstrops  :  I  learned  that  name  in  a  play.     C.  C,  IV,  1,  p.  64, 

Ush.    What  is  my  sister,  centaur? 

CoVs  Tr.     I  say  thy  sister  is  a  bronstrops. 

Ush.    A  bronstrops? 

Chough.    Tutor,  tutor,  —  tell  me  the  English  of  that ;  what  is  a  bronstrops,  pray  ? 

CoVs  Tr.    A  bronstrops  is  in  English  a  hippocrene.  F.  Q.,  IV,  1,  105-112. 

page,  especially,  I  think,  as  that  of  the  "  Queen  of  Bohemia's  players"  (/.  e.,  lyady 
Elizabeth's,  so-called  after  she  became  such  in  Nov.  1619)  would  have  made  it  rather 
convenient  to  give  up  a  designation  which  long  had  had  no  meaning,  was  confusing, 
and  now  had  no  justification.  In  any  case,  the  Queen's  Men  existed,  even  under  the 
new  name,  only  till  July  or  Aug.,  1623  (Fleay,  Hist.,  299,  301),— the  absolute  forward 
limit,  then,  for  our  play. 

^  Given  in  Fleay's  Hist.  vStage,  p.  357;  preserved  in  the  I/ard  Chamberlain's  office. 

*  Appius  and  Virginia,  Tragi-Conifdy ,  by  R.  B.,  4to,  1576.  —  Halliwell  (p.  21) 
thinks  it  is  the  old  play. 

'  See  below,  Chap.  IV,  Sect.  III. 

*  See  below,  pp.  41-43. 

■  Mr.  Fleay's  work  on  Webster  is,  I  suppose,  on  his  lowest  level.  Qi  A.&  K  he 
says:  "From  its  allusion,  at  the  end,  to  Lucrece  [Heywood's  play  of  1608],  would 
seem  to  date  c.  1609.  It  was  undoubtedly  a  play  acted  by  Queen  Anne's  men,  and 
passed  with  the  White  Devil  to  Queen  Henrietta's."  This  allusion  to  Hey.  amounts 
to  the  name  "  I,ucretia  "  ;  and  there  is  not  a  tittle  of  evidence  to  show  that  the  play 
was  acted  by  Queen  Anne's. 

33 


As  the  Fair  Quarrel  first  appeared  in  print  in  1617,  this  may  be 
considered  a  fairly  certain  backward  limit.  But  there  is  a  nearer. 
The  plot  of  Webster's  portion  is  in  part  derived,  as  we  shall  yet  prove,  ^ 
from  Massinger's  Parliament  of  Love.  This  play  was  licensed  for  the 
Cockpit  on  Nov.  3rd,  1624.  The  only  forward  limit,  however,  of  the 
Cure  for  a  Cuckold  0.^  oi  Appius  and  Virginia,  is  the  date  of  Web- 
ster's death,  whatever  that  may  be. 

X.     THE  AUTHORSHIP   OF   THE  DOUBTFUL  PI.AYS. 

It  remains  to  consider  the  authenticity  of  three  plays  —  the  Cure  for 
a  Cuckold,  the  Thracian  Wonder,  and  The  Weakest  Goeth  to  the  Wall. 

The  Weakest  Goeth  to  the  Wall,  registered  and  published  in  1600,  is 
easily  disposed  of.  Neither  title-page  nor  stationers'  entry  mentions 
the  author.  The  play  itself  shows  not  the  slightest  trace  of  Webster's 
hand,  and  it  was  first  attributed  to  him  (by  Edward  Phillips,  a 
nephew  of  Milton)  so  late  as  1675.^  "A  great  mistake,"  says  the 
judicious  Langbaine.  ^ 

The  Cure  for  a  Cuckold  and  the  Thracian  Wonder  must  be  consid- 
ered, so  far  as  external  evidence  is  concerned,  together.  Both  were 
first  published  by  Francis  Kirkman  in  1661.  Both,  evidently,  were 
sent  to  press  at  about  the  same  time,  for  the  title-pages,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  bare  title,  are,  both  in  phrase  and  typography,  exactly 
alike.*  Both  bear  the  names  of  John  Webster  and  William  Rowley. 
Both  have  been  challenged  b}^  most  critics  of  the  century  ;  and  hardly 
any  one  supported  the  authenticity  of  either  till  Mr.  Gosse  asserted 
the  artistic  worth  of  the  main-plot  of  the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold,  and,  on 
that  basis,  its  authenticity.^ 


^  See  below,  Chap.  IV.  Sect.  I. 

'  Phillips's  Theairum  Poetarum,  1675,  pp.  116-17,  where  he  assigns  to  him  also  the 
Noble  Stranger,  New  Trick  to  Cheat  the  Devil,  and  Woman  will  have  her  Will 
(the  second  probably  by  association  with  D.  L.  C).  —  Hazlitt  wrongly  states  (vol. 
I,  p.  xx)  that  the  attribution  rests  on  the  authority  of  Winstanley,  in  1687. 

^  P.  510.  He  says  it  of  Phillips,  in  regard  not  only  to  the  JVeakest  but  also  the 
Noble  Stranger,  New  Trick  to  Cheat  the  Devil,  and  Woman  will  have  her  Will. 

■*  A  Cure  for  a  Cuckold  A  Pleasant  Comedy  As  it  hath  been  several  times  Acted  with 
great  Applause.  Written  by  John  Webster  and  William  Rowley.  Placere  Cupio. 
London.  Printed  by  Tho.  Johnson,  and  are  to  be  sold  by  Francis  Kirkman,  at  his 
Shop  at  the  Sign  of  John  Fletchers  Head,  over  against  the  Angel-Inne,  on  the  Back 
side  of  St.  Clements,  without  Temple  Bar  1661.  —  The  Thracian  Wonder.  A  Comical 
History,  —  and  the  rest  identical.  See  the  reproductions  of  the  original  title-pages 
in  Haz.,  vol.  IV,  pp.  1  and  115.    There  is  no  deviation  except  at  London. 

"  For  Gosse,  see  below ;  Ward  in  his  History,  Symonds  it),  introd.  to  Mer.  Webster, 
lyCe  in  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.,  art.  Webster,  who  hesitatingly  follow  Gosse;  Bullen  in 
Middleton,  footnote  to  F.  Q.,  IV,  1,  105,  112  ;  Fleay.    For  Dyce,  see  below,  p.  37. 

34 


The  attribution,  for  which  Kirkman  is  responsible,  is,  indeed,  late. 
But  it  is  unjustifiable  to  hold,  with  Fleay  and  others,  that  consequently 
it  is  worthless^  (for  a  late  attribution  by  the  first  publisher  is  a  very 
different  matter  from  a  late  attribution  by  a  mere  uncritical  critic  such 
as  Phillips);  or  that,  if  it  can  be  proved  wrong  in  regard  to  one  of  the 
plays,  it  must  therefore  be  wrong  in  regard  to  the  other.  There  could 
be  no  fraud  intended,  as  there  might  be  in  the  case  of  more  popular 
names,  such  as  Shakspere  ^  or  Fletcher  ;  and  there  must  be  some  rea- 
son other  than  fraud  or  caprice  for  associating  with  the  name  of  Rowley 
—  not  Middleton's,  Fletcher's,  Ford's,  Massinger's,  or  Dekker's^  — 
but  Webster's.  Very  likely,  Kirkman  had  the  manuscripts  in  his  hands, 
and  one  of  the  two,  at  least,  avouched  this  unprecedented  partnership. 
For  that  he  had  some  basis  of  fact  to  go  on,  is  proved  by  what  Mr. 
Fleay  and  everyone  concede  —  Rowley's  unmistakable  touch  in  the 
Cure  for  a  Cuckold."^ 

How  did  Webster's  name  get  associated  with  Rowley's?  The  same 
story  as  that  of  the    Thracian   Wonder,  as  Collier  has  pointed  out, 


^  Fleay,  II,  273. 

*  As  is  actually  the  case  with  the  Birth  of  Merlin,  pub.  by  Kirkman  in  1662,  and 
attributed  to  Shak.  and  Rowley. 

'  With  Middleton's,  of  course,  in  many  plays  ;  with  Fletcher's  in  the  Maid  in  the 
Mill  (Herbert's  office  book,  Chalmers's  Supp.  Apol.,  ed.  1799,  p.  215)  ;  with  Dekker's 
and  Ford's  in  Edmonton;  with  Massinger's  in  the  The  Old  Law. 

*  Fleay,  II,  p.  99  ;  Ward  ;  Seccombe  in  the  Diet.  Nat.  Bios.,  "  Rowley  ";  etc.  That 
is,  R.  is  the  author  of  the  under-plot,  the  story  of  Compass,  his  wife,  her  child,  and 
Frankford.  This  is  altogether  apart  from  the  main-plot,  not  only  in  subject  and 
style,  but  also  in  structure;  Frankford's  being  a  brother-in-law  of  Woodruff  is  the 
only  link  between  the  two.  Mr.  Edmund  Gosse,  the  first  critic  to  take  a  stand  for 
Webster's  authorship  of  the  main-plot,  separated  it  from  the  under-plot  —  a  very 
simple  business  of  subtraction,  —  and  in  his  edition  of  the  main-plot,  which 
he  calls  Love's  Graduate  (Oxford,  1885),  takes  honor  to  himself  for  his  discovery. 
The  discovery  amounts  to  Mr.  Gosse's  oracular  reassertion  of  Kirkman's  title- 
page. 

R.'s  authorship  of  the  under-plot  is  indicated  by  the  tweak  and  bronstrops  passage 
quoted  from  his  previous  play,  and  by  the  style  in  every  scene.  The  extreme,  yet 
laughable,  absurdity  of  Compass's  attitude  to  his  "son,"  of  his  persisting  in  spite 
of  all  the  evidence  to  the  contrary,  which  he  has  intellectually  accepted,  in  calling 
himself  "  father  "  (IV,  3,  p.  77,  "  when  the  father  is  beyond  sea  as  this  was"),  is 
paralleled  by  the  Clown  in  the  Birth  of  Merlin,  who  can't  get  over  the  wonder  of  it 
that  his  sister  should  be  got  with  child  and  he  not  know  of  it  (II,  1,  1.  35  f);  or 
(though  here  with  a  harder,  more  cynical  touch)  by  Gnotho,  who  comes  "  crowdinjr 
on  afore  "  with  a  band  of  fiddlers,  leading  his  old  wife  to  her  grave,  and  his  new- 
chosen  bride  to  the  wedding,  and,  when  the  duke  plainly  tells  him  the  law  that  the 
superannuated  should  die  is  now  abolished,  cries  in  eager  hurry,  "  I  '11  talk  further 
with  your  grace  when  I  come  back  from  church  :  in  the  meantime  you  know  what 
to  do  with  the  old  woman."  Of  the  same  stripe  are  Compass's  reasonings  before 
the  lawyers  (IV,  1). 

35 


appeared  in  1617/  with  the  title,  ""The  most  pleasant  and  delightful 
Historie  of  Curan,  Prince  of  Danske,  and  the  Fayre  Princesse  Argen- 
tile.  Daughter  and  Heyre  of  Adelbright,  sometime  King  of  Northum- 
berland. This  was  by  one  William  Webster.  Now  Kirkman,  knowing 
the  story, — for  Kirkman,  as  his  advertisements,  or  addresses  to  the 
reader,  ^  and  his  catalogxie  of  Elizabethan  plays  ^  prove,  was  a  reading 
man,  — might  have  confused  the  names  of  William  Webster  and  John 
Webster,  or  put  for  the  unknown  the  known  as  a  guess.  But  this  is 
not  likely,  it  seems  to  me,  unless  the  manuscript  of  the  only  other  play 
of  John  Webster's  he  ever  published,  the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold^  which 
he  was  publishing,  too,  as  the  title-pages  show,  at  this  very  time,  had 
already  John  Webster's  name  attached. 

And  how,  on  the  other  hand,  did  Rowley's  *  name  get  on  the  title- 
page  of  the  Thracian  Wonder,  which  shows  not  one  trace  of  his  hand  ? 
This  play  is  already  assigned  to  one  author  —  Webster,  — and  a  second, 
in  a  matter  of  guessing,  would  be  superfluous.  Rowley's  name,  we 
may  rest  assured,  Kirkman  never  would  have  thought  of  adding  to 
Webster's  on  the  title-page  of  the  Thracian  Wonder,  were  it  not 
already  connected  with  Webster's  in  the  only  possible  instance  of 
such  connection,  — his  manuscript  of  the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold. 

On  either  hand,  then,  external  evidence  intimates  that  Kirkman 
was  neither  cheating  nor  blindly  guessing  —  that  he  erred  in  the  case 
of  the  Thracian  Wonder  only  through  the  influence  of  authority  in 
the  case  of  the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold.  Internal  evidence  confirms  this. 
The  Thracian  Wonder  shows  not  the  slightest  trace  of  either  Rowley's 
or  Webster's  hand  :  neither  ever  wrote  in  the  pastoral-idyllic  style  ; 
neither  ever  wrote  anything  soft  and  foolish  and  vulgarly  absurd. 
The  ogre  of  a  king  belching  out  destruction  in  his  court,  and  among 
the  shepherds'  cotes  meek  as  any  lamb  ;  telling  the  Sicilian  ambas- 


^  See  Haz.,  IV,  pp.  117-18.  Collier  and  Dyce  rest  content,  however,  merely  with  the 
theory  of  the  confusion  of  Wm.  with  John  Webster,  and  with  the  assertion  that  the 
T.  IV.  contains  no  trace  of  W.'s  hand. 

*  vSee,  for  instance,  that  to  the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold  in  Haz.  Web. 

^  True  and  perfect  and  exact  Catalogue  of  all  the  the  Comedies,  Tragedies,  and 
Tragi-comedies ,  etc.,  that  were  ever  yet  Printed  and  Published  till  this  present  year  1671 
(Brit.  Mus.). 

*  Fleay  thinks  the  association  of  W.'s  with  R.'s  name  prima  facie  evidence  of  error ; 
"  They  never  worked  together."  (II,  99.)  What  that  amounts  to  is,  there  are  no 
other  title-pages  bearing  their  names  !  To  my  mind,  on  the  contrary,  the  association 
of  Webster's  name  with  Rowley's  is  presumptive  evidence  in  favor  of  itself.  In  the 
first  place,  Webster's  name  could  not  have  got  there  through  being  mistaken  for  any 
of  those  names  otherwise  associated  with  Rowley,  —  Middleton,  Ford,  Massinger, 
etc.,  — for  the  play  bears  no  sign  of  their  hand.  In  the  second,  there  is  no  other 
Rowley-Webster  play  from  which  this  play  could  be  named  by  analogy.  Were 
there  any  other,  I  should  be  suspicious. 

36 


sador  on  one  page  he  *  *  will  lash  his  king  with  iron  rods, ' '  and  on  the 
next  surrendering  to  him  "  in  palmer's  weeds  "  ^;  the  silly,  love-sick 
shepherds  scampering  hither  and  thither  and  up  trees  ;  the  chorus 
hlabbing,  and  Time  entering  with  his  hour-glass  to  *'  bar  "  it  ^;  and, 
above  all,  the  very  foolish  battle  wherein  the  Sicilian  prince,  injured 
husband  of  the  ogre-king's  daughter,  has  a  mind  to  fight  him  at  the 
head  of  his  shepherds,  but  very  suddenly  and  unreasonably  joins  with 
him  against  his  own  father  of  Sicily,  yet,  in  the  midst  of  the  fray, 
leaving  his  indignant  son  behind  as  general,  wheels  over  to  the  other 
side,  and,  after  many  skirmishes,  in  which  his  love-lorn,  raving 
shepherds  get  the  best  of  him,  ends  the  conflict  with  a  hand-to-hand 
fight  with  his  son, — when  lo,  father,  son,  grandfather,  grandson, 
husband,  and  wife  rush  all  to  a  sudden  recognition,  none  the  worse  for 
the  wear !  Such  a  ' '  Wonder  ' '  as  this  is  in  a  vein  foreign  to  our 
authors.  And  the  style  is  equally  so.  Men  come  in  and  fall  down 
dead  with  the  plague  : 

Sec.  Lord.    Mercy,  he  's  dead  ! 

Sophos.        Bless  me  !  I  fear  I  have  taken  the  infection. 


is  this  a  time  for  music  ? 
And  so  it  is  indeed,  for  every  one 
Is  ready  to  kick  up  his  heels.     [  Within.     Oh  !  oh  !  oh  !  ] 

T.  W.,  II,  1.  p.  137-9. 
Hail  to  those  sweet  eyes, 
That  shine  celestial  w^onder ; 
From  thence  do  flames  arise, 
Bum  my  poor  heart  asunder ; 
Now  it  fries.  T.  IV.,  11,4. 

Surely,  whether  on  behalf  of  Webster  or  of  Rowley,  there  is  no  reason 
to  accept  the  Thracian  Wonder.  '^ 

It  is  quite  otherwise  vdth  the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold.  Dyce  long  ago 
suggested  that  Webster's  hand  might  be  traced  in  it*;  but  of  evi- 
dence on  the  subject  there  has  hitherto  been  none.  Yet,  viewed  in 
the  light  of  a  study  of  Webster's  development  and  of  his  relation  to 
his  sources,  internal  evidence  declares  as  decisively  for  Webster's 
authorship  in  the  main-plot  as  for  Rowley's  in  the  under-plot.  The 
Cure  for  a  Cuckold  is  really  not  more  unlike  Webster's  other  work 
than  Appius  and  Virginia,  which  passes  unchallenged.  The  diffi- 
culty of  critics  hitherto  lies  in  a  preconceived,  vague,  romantic  notion 


^  III,  1,  p.  160,  and  III.  2,  p.  163. 
=*  I,  3,  p.  136. 

'  As  Fleay,  Dyce,  Collier,  etc.,  agree.     Mr.  Fleay  (II,  332)  has  a  very  ingrenious 
theory,  not  proved  by  his  evidence,  that  the  play  is  Heywood's. 
*  Dyce's  Webster,  1857.  vol.  I,  p.  xv. 

37 


of  Webster's  character  and  style,  derived  merely  from  the  White 
Devil  and  Malfi.  But  nothing  is  truer  than  that  the  Elizabethan 
dramatists  were  Protean,  enormously  susceptible,  and  that  at  different 
periods  they  followed  different  tendencies,  different  fashions.  That  is 
what  Webster  did  in  Malfi  and  the  White  Devil,  —  wrote,  as  we  shall 
see,  in  the  style  of  a  school,  —  and  his  whole  character  is  no  more  to 
be  found  in  these  two  sombre  tragedies  than  Shakspere's  in  Titus 
Andronicus  and  Richard  III,  or  in  the  Tempest  and  Winter^ s  Tale, 
Now  in  the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold  he  borrowed  his  plot  almost  bodily,  as 
we  shall  yet  see,  from  Massinger's  Parliament  of  Love.  The  pre- 
sumption, thereby  arising,  that  he  should  borrow,  besides,  something 
of  the  style  and  manner,  a  careful  examination  confirms  ;  and  not  onlj'- 
this  play,  but  the  DeviVs  Law-Case  and  Appius  and  Virgifiia  as  well, 
show  traces  of  the  master  influence  of  the  day  in  which  they  took 
form  —  the  influence  of  Massinger  and  Fletcher.  Like  Shakspere, 
like  Chapman,  Webster  followed  in  their  day  of  honor  the  lead  of 
more  forward  and  fashionable,  though  not  more  knowing,  masters.  ^ 
Yet  we  need  not  seem  to  beg  the  question  —  we  need  not,  in  order 
to  prove  the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold  Webster's,  seem  to  some  to  rob  him 
of  his  integrity  and  make  him  out  a  different  man.  His  hand  and 
touch  are  here,  even  those  of  the  Malfi  Webster.  \,et  me  bring  for- 
ward only  a  few  parallels  of  phrasing  to  prove  this  : 

1.  Four  times  —  in  the  White  Devil,  the  DeviVs  Law-Case,  and 
twice  in  the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold  —  Webster  makes  a  woman  cry  out 
at  the  news  of  her  lover's  death  (brought,  moreover,  in  three  cases 
by  the  would-be  slayer  himself). 

Oh,  I  am  lost  forever !  ^ 

2.  On  this  same  occasion,  in  both  the  DeviVs  Law-Case  and  the 
Cure  for  a  Cuckold,  she  cries  to  the  would-be  slayer, 

O,  you  have  struck  him  dead  through  my  heart !  ^ 

3.  In  both  the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold  and  the  DeviVs  Law-Case,  the  two 
young  men  who  are  about  to  fight  a  duel,  speak  of  wearing  a  ''privy 

*  Shak. :  see  Thomdike's  Influence  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher.  Web. :  see  the 
chapters  on  C.  C.  and  D.  L.  C.    Chap. :  see  App.  II. 

'  C.  C,  IV.  2,  p.  69,  Clare  :  III.  3.  p.  54,  Annabel ;  W.  D.,  V.  1,  p.  112,  Vittoria  (here, 
however,  Brachiano  is  only  dying)  ;  D.  L.  C,  II,  3,  p.  46,  l^eonora. 

'  C.  C,  IV,  2,  p.  69,  Clare  to  I,essingham  :  D.  L.  C,  III,  3,  p.  68,  "  You  have  given 
him  the  wound  you  speak  of  quite  through  your  mother's  heart."  —  In  D.  L.  C, 
indeed,  this  speech  is  uttered  not  at  the  same  time  as  "  O  I  am  lost,"  etc.,  but  at 
the  second  announcement  of  Contarino's  death,  from  the  mouth  of  her  son,  his 
would-be  slayer. —  The  phrase  itself  is  copied,  like  so  many  others  in  Web.,  from  the 
Arcadia.     See  below.  Chap.  Ill,  Sect.  I,  and  Notes  and  Queries,  Oct.  15,  1904,  p.  304. 

38 


coat^ ' '  —  what  one  in  the  one  play  calls  his  * '  heart, ' '  and  one  in  the 
other  ^  the  "justice  of  his  cause."  In  both  cases  it  is  an  immaterial, 
and  yet  striking,  coincidence  of  phrase  and  thought,  such  as  would  be 
brought  forth  only  by  the  same  mind  under  the  same  circumstances. 

4.  Compare  Clare  in  this  play  — 

I  am  every  way  lost,  and  no  means  to  raise  me 
But  blest  repentance  !  C.C..  IV,  2,  p.  72. 

—  and  Cornelia  to  Flamineo,  in  the  White  Devil — 

To  tell  how  thou  shouldst  spend  the  time  to  come 

W.  D.,  IV,  5,  p.  209. 

—  where  the  same  phrase  takes  exactly  the  same  position  and  accent 
in  the  metre,  a  slight  matter  no  imitator  would  copy. 

5.  The  peculiar  curse  in  the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold, 

And  may  my  friend's  blood,  whom  you  loved  so  dearly, 

Forever  lie  imposthumed  in  your  breast, 

And  i'  th'  end  choke  you  !  C.C,  IV,  2,  p,  72. 

and  in  the  White  Devil, 

Die  with  those  pills  in  your  most  cursed  maw, 

Should  bring  you  health  !    or  while  you  sit  o'  th'  bench, 

I,et  your  own  spittle  choke  you  !  W.  D.,  Ill,  2,  p.  65. 

6.  In  A  Cure  for  a  Cuckold: 
In  Malfi 


You  have  ta'en  a  mass  of  lead  from  off  my  heart 
Forever  would  have  sunk  it  in  despair.  IV,  2,  p.  70. 


And  thou  hast  ta'en  that  massy  sheet  of  lead 
That  hid  thy  husband's  bones,  and  folded  it 
About  my  heart.  Ill,  2,  pp.  209-10. 

7.  In  ^  Cure  for  a  Cuckold: 

You  are  to  sleep  with  a  sweet  bed-fellow 

Would  knit  the  brow  at  that.  IV,  2,  p.  74. 

In  the  White  Devil: 

why,  the  saints  in  heaven 
Will  knit  their  brows  at  that.  II.  p.  38. 

In  both  cases  the  expression  is  used  alike  figuratively ;  and  in  the 
same  place  in  the  metre  and  the  sentence. 

8.  In  ^  Cure  for  a  Cuckold  there  is  a  couplet  which  recalls  one 
that  appears  in  both  Malfi,  and  the  White  Devil  (see  note  at  the  end 

of  Chapter  II)  : 

And  it  were  sin 
Not  in  our  agre  to  show  what  we  have  bin.  I,  1,  p.  16. 

,    ^  D.L.  C,  II,  1,  pp.  39,  40;  C.  C.  III.  1,  pp.  47. 

39 


There  are  yet  other  parallel  passages,  but  let  them  pass.  Of  these 
quoted,  nos.  1,  2,  and  3  coincide  in  wording,  dramatic  situation,  and 
character  ;  others,  as  nos.  4  and  8,  merely  in  the  expression  ;  but  most 
of  them,  being  colorless  and  insignificant  in  themselves,  and  resem- 
bling each  other  far  more  in  form  than  in  substance,  are,  like  the 
drawing  of  ears  or  little  toes  in  a  painter  or  sculptor,  no  more  the 
points  another  would  think  of  copying  than  he  himself  of  changing. 

Another  test  we  might  apply  to  the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold  is  the  use  of 
the  exclamation  ha! ^  especially  as  comprehending  a  whole  speech. 
This  is  of  extraordinary  frequency  in  Webster.  ^  It  appears  in  the 
White  Devil  13  times,  6  of  them  being  whole  speeches ;  in  Malfi  10 
times,  2  of  them  whole  speeches  ;  in  the  Law-Case  9  times,  4  of  them 
whole  speeches  ;  in  Appius  and  Virginia  twice ;  in  the  main  plot  of 
the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold!  times,  2  of  them  whole  speeches.  In  view 
of  the  slight  extent  of  Webster's  part  of  the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold  as 
compared  with  that  of  the  other  plays,  and  of  the  frigidity  and  academic 
character  of  the  Roman  play,  Appius  and  Virginia,  the  statistics  for 
the  different  plays  keep  remarkably  even,  and  the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold 
seems  only  to  take  its  place  with  the  others. 

There  are  still  other  points  of  similarity,  such  as  cheap,  deceptive 
tricks  with  words. 

Less.    Then  truth  is,  he  's  dangerously  wounded. 

Wood.    But  he  's  not  dead,  I  hope? 

Less.    No,  Sir,  not  dead  : 

Yet  sure  your  daughter  may  take  liberty 

To  choose  another. 


I  told  you  he  was  wounded,  and  'tis  true ; 

He  is  wounded  in  his  reputation.  C.  C,  V,  1,  pp.  86-7. 

Compare  with  this  Appius  and  Virginia,  I,  1,  p.  132,  where  Appius 
pretends  to  go  into  banishment,  but  winds  up  in  this  fashion  : 

Banish  'd  from  all  my  kindred  and  my  friends ; 
Yea,  banish  'd  from  myself ;  for  I  accept 
_  This  honorable  calling. 

This  is  a  favorite  artifice  of  Webster's.  In  the  White  Devil,  V,  2, 
p.  131,  Flamineo  speaks  of  his  "two  case  of  jewels,"  which  in  a 
moment  turn  out  to  be  pistols,  and  Lodovico  answers  Giovanni's 
question  on  whose  authority  he  had  committed  the  massacre,  thus : 

L^d.    By  thine. 

Gio.    Mine ! 

Lod.    Yes ;  thy  uncle,  which  is  a  part  of  thee,  enjoined  us  to  't. 

IV.  D.,  V.  2.  p.  142. 

»  These  are  the  references :  IV.  D.,  pp.  33,  35,  57,  61,64,  73.  81,  93,  108,  128,  141, 
142;  Malfi,  177,  190,  190,  211,  232,  241,  249,  267,  273,  276;  D.  L.  C,  25,  59.  62.  62.  65» 
68,  69.  70,  116 ;  C.  C.  30,40,  46,  89,  90,  91,  96;  A.cSf  V.,  152,  214. 

40 


In  Appius  arid  Virginia  Virginius  surrenders  his  daughter  "into 
the  court  —  of  all  the  gods"  ^;  and  in  the  Devil's  Law-Case  a.r\d  the 
Cure  for  a  Cuckold  this  bent  of  his  goes  to  such  lengths  as  to  lose 
utterly  the  spectator's  confidence  and  sympathy.  See,  for  instance, 
Jolenta's  letter  to  Contarino,  and  Clare's  letter  (another  point  of 
similarity  ! )  to  Lessingham .  ^ 

Another  proof  is  the  number  of  striking  parallels  in  plot  between 
the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold  and  Webster's  only  other  independent  comedy, 
the  Devil's  Law-Case,  at  points  where  it  does  not  follow  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Love.  ^  But  enough  has  been  brought  forward  already,  I 
think,  to  prove  Webster's  authorship  beyond  a  cavil. 

If,  however,  the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold  h^  made  to  follow  the  Parliament 
of  Love,  licensed  to  play  November,  1624,  some  one  well-read  in  Fleay 
or  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography  may  cry,  ' '  But  Webster 
died  in  1625."  Mr.  Fleay  says,  "  He  was  probably  the  John  Webster, 
cloth-worker,  who  made  his  will  the  5th  of  Aug.  1625,  proved  7th 
Oct.'"^;  and  Mr.  Sidney  Lee  assents. "^  But,  I  think,  without  reason. 
It  was  the  indefatigable  Dyce  who  first  brought  forward  John  Webster, 
clothworker,  and  his  will  of  1625 ;  and  Dyce  consigns  it,  as  the  only 
shred  of  evidence  there  is  on  the  death  of  any  John  Webster  within  a 
remarkable  stretch  of  time,  to  a  foot-note.  To  this  he  adds,  for  com- 
pleteness' sake,  the  will  of  a  John  Webster,  tallow-chandler.*' 

The  abstract  of  the  will  furnished  Mr.  Dyce  by  the  Prerogative 
Office  is  as  follows  : 

John  Webster,  clothworker,  of  lyondon,  made  his  will  on  the  5th  of  August,  1625. 
He  bequeathes  to  his  sister,  Jane  Cheney,  dwelling  within  seven  miles  of  Norwich 
10  1.,  with  remainder,  if  she  ^ied,  to  her  children,  and  if  they  died,  to  his  sister 
Elizabeth  Pyssing- ;  to  whom  he  also  left  10  1.,  with  remainder  to  her  children.  To 
his  father-in-law,  William  Hattfield,  of  Whittington,  in  Derbyshire,  15  1.,  and  to  his 
four  children  4  1.  each.  To  his  covisin  Peter  Webster,  of  Whittington,  in  Derbyshire, 
he  gives  10  1.,  and  if  he  died  before  it  was  paid,  it  was  to  be  given  to  his  brother,  who 
was  a  protestant,  "  for  I  hear  that  one  brother  of  my  cousin  Peter  is  a  papist."  To 
William  Bradbury,  of  lyondon,  shoemaker,  5  1.  To  Richard  Matthew,  his  (the  tes- 
tator's) son-in-law,  16  1.  He  mentions  his  father-in-l^w,  Mr.  Thomas  Fannan.  He 
gives  his  counsin  Edward  Curtice,  1  1.  2  s.,  etc.  He  leaves  the  residue  of  his  prop- 
erty to  his  brothers  and  sisters  in  law,  by  his  wife  ;  specially  providing  that  EHza- 


^  A.(f^  v.,  IV,  1,  p.  201. 

'  D.  L.  C,  V,  2,  p.  107 ;  cf.  Ill,  3,  pp.  62,  63 :  C.  C,  I,  p.  13 :  cf.  II,  4.  p.  38,  as  to  his 
being  mistaken,  and  the  explanations,  pp.  38,  54,  69,  74.  —  And  for  other  deceptive 
verbal  tricks,  p.  47  and  pp.  48,  49. 

'  Below,  Chap.  IV,  Sect.  I,  note  at  end. 

*  Bwg:.  Chr.,  II,  268. 

'  "He  seems  to  have  died,"  etc.,  Diet.  Nat.  Bios.,  art.  IVebster.  likewise  Mr. 
Gosse,  Jacobean  Poets,  lyondon,  1894,  p.  166. 

•  Dyce's  Web.,  ed.  1857,  p.  x. 


41 


beth  Walker  should  be  one.  He  constitutes  Mr.  Robert  Aungel,  and  his  cousin, 
Mr.  Francis  Ash,  citizens,  his  executors ;  and  his  cousins  Courtis  and  Tayler, 
overseers  of  his  will,  —  which  was  proved  by  his  executors  on  the  7th  of  October, 
1625. 

This  document  is  neither  written  nor  signed  b}'  the  testator ;  he 
and  three  of  the  witnesses  (his  cousin  Edward  Curtis,  the  fourth,  being 
the  only  exception)  are  fain  to  make  their  marks.  ^  Now  it  is  incon- 
ceivable that  John  Webster,  playwright,  should  not  have  signed  his 
name  unless  too  weak  to  hold  the  pen  (which  the  date  of  the  proving 
makes  unlikely) ;  and  it  is  highl}'  improbable  that  with  friends  like 
Dekker,  Munday,  Heywood,  Ford,  and  Rowley  ^  still  living,  he  should 
have  been  abandoned  in  his  last  hours  to  the  society  of  illiterates,  or, 
with  so  large  an  estate  on  his  hands,  should  have  bequeathed  it  only 
to  distant  Protestant  relatives  and  a  shoemaker.  Our  Webster,  more- 
over, was  not  a  clothworker.  "Merchant-Taylor"  he  designates 
himself  on  the  title-page  of  the  Monuments  of  Honor,  a  pageant  of 
' '  the  Right  Worthy  and  Worshipful  Fraternity,  the  Eminent  Merchant 
Taylors, "  —  a  thing  (as  Dyce  and  Fleay  surely  knew)  very  differ- 
ent.^ And,  even  as  merchant-tailor,  he  speaks  of  himself  at  this  same 
time,  in  the  dedication  to  Gore,  only  as  of  one  '''born  free  of  your 
company.'"^  He  is,  therefore,  not  any  of  the  three  John  Websters 
7nade  free  ^  of  the  Company  in  1571,  1576,  and  1617  ^;  still  less  that  one 


*  I  give  this  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Crofts.     See  below,  p.  43,  note. 

''That  these  last  were  also  his  friends,  appears  from  the  partnership  with  Ford, 
and  his  verses  addressed  to  Munday  and  Heywood. 

'It  is  unlikely  that  in  the  will  of  J.  W.,  clothworker,  there  should  have  been 
any  such  mistake.  However  loosely  and  vaguely  such  three  designations  as  cloth- 
worker, merchant-tailor,  and  draper  may  be  used  today,  it  was  otherwise  then, 
when  one  necessarily  understood  by  each  a  member  of  one  of  the  Twelve  Great 
Companies  of  I^ondon  (see  list  in  Ashley's  English  Econ.  Hist.,  1893,  vol.  II,  p.  133). 

*  See  Works,  III,  p.  232  ;  pub.  in  1624. 

*  This  distinction  is  important.  See  Toulmin  Smith,  English  Gilds  (lyondon,  1870) , 
p.  cxxxii :  "  the  whole  household  of  a  Gild-brother  belonged  to  the  Gild,"  etc. 

*  Works,  I,  introd.,  p.  vi.  —  Possibly,  on  the  other  hand,  he  may  have  been  a  son 
of  one  of  the  earlier  ones.  The  due-bill  dated  July  25th,  1591,  wherein  John  Allein 
and  Edward  Alleyn  acknowledge  their  indebtedness  to  "John  Webster,  city  sen  and 
merchant  Tayler  of  lyondon  "  in  the  sum  of  15  shillings,  is  probably  the  nearest 
we  come  by  documentary  evidence  to  John  Webster  the  poet.  This  may  be  the 
poet's  father,  who  may  have  had  dealings  with  actors  and  so  come  to  get  his  son 
into  their  society.  This  would  harmonize  with  our  poet's  being  born  free  of  the 
company.  The  due-bill  is  printed  in  \h^  Alleyn  Papers,  ed.  by  Collier  (who  suggests 
that  this  Webster  may  be  the  father  of  the  poet),  lyondon,  1843,  p.  14;  and  is 
accounted  by  Warner  in  his  Catalogue  of  Dulwich  College  Mss.  as  genuine.  —  If  this 
be  so,  the  poet  can  not  be  the  '  nephew  John  Webster,  as  near  to  whom  as  might  be  ' 
John  Webster,  the  tallow-chandler,  in  his  will  of  Feb.  16th,  1628,  wishes  to  be  buried  ; 
there  could  not  have  been  two  brothers  called  John. 

42 


assessed  10  shillings  on  March  15th,  1603  ^;  nor,  indeed,  is  he  to  be 
reckoned  a  craftsman  at  all.  The  designation  on  the  title-page  is 
perfunctory,  in  compliment  to  the  company  for  which  he  wrote  the 
pageant ;  and  Webster  is  no  more  of  a  merchant-tailor  than  any  of 
the  other  worthies  mentioned  in  this  pageant  as  "free  of  the  com- 
pany," than  that  bold  soldier  of  fortune.  Sir  John  Hawkwood,  Queen 
Anne,  or  the  "  bad  man  but  good  king,  Richard  the  Third." ^ 

We  may  conclude,  therefore,  without  a  shadow  of  doubt,  that  Webster 
is  not  John  Webster,  clothworker  ;  and  since  there  are  no  more  wills 
of  John  Websters  at  Somerset  House, -^  from  1621-35,  there  is,  at  any 
rate,  no  longer  a  will  and  probate  in  the  way  ^  of  Webster's  writing 
the  Cure  for  a  Cuckold  aiter  Nov.  3rd,  1624. 

XI.     THE   PERIODS   OF  WEBSTER'S  WORK. 

Now,  at  last,  we  are  in  a  position  to  tabulate  on  a  secure  basis  the 
development  of  Webster's  art.  Three  periods,  of  course  (according 
to  the  hackneyed  and  inevitable  scheme),  are  to  be  discerned  :  Growiih, 
Maturity,  and  Decay,  the  point  of  Maturity  being  marked  by  the  White 
Devil  and  Malfi.  Another  principle,  however,  is  to  be  preferred,  — 
that  of  the  prevalent  influences.  According  to  this  latter,  his  work 
falls  into  these  periods  : 

1.  Period  of  Apprenticeship  and  Partnership  :  mainly  under  the 
influence  of  Dekker. 

sesers  ffalle  1602 

too  shapes  1602 

Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  (Lady  Jane)  1602 

cryssmas  comes  bute  once  ayeare  1602 


*/.  <».,  toward  a  pageant  for  King  James.  Clode  {Memorials  of  the  Merchant 
Taylors"  Company,  I/jn.,  1875.  p.  596).  who  takes  it  as  a  matter  of  course  that  this  is 
the  poet  himself,  admits  (p.  601,  note)  that  the  records  do  not  show  that  he  ever 
took  up  the  freedom  acquired  by  birth.  Clode  seems  not  to  know  of  the  Alley n 
Papers  John  Webster,  who  is  probably  the  man  assessed. 

^  Mon.  Hon.,  pp.  238-9.  Mischief  in  this  business  of  the  tailor  was  made  by  Dyce 
(blindly  followed  by  Haz.),  in  quoting  wrongly  the  title-page  of  the  Mon.  Hon. 
He  says,  ed.  1830,  vol.  I,  p.  11,  that  there  W.  describes  himself  as  "John  Webster 
Taylor,"  although  in  vol.  IV,  App.,  he  gives  the  title-page  correctly  —  "  Merchant- 
Taylor." —  from  the  "copy,  perhaps  unique,  belonging  to  the  Duke  of  Devonshire." 
His  calling  himself  "  Taylor  "  is.  of  course,  a  different  matter. 

'  What  facts  I  have  here  given  concerning  the  Clothworker's  parchment  I  owe  to 
the  services  of  Mr.  T.  Robertson  W.  Crofts.  Highgate.  He  was  not  allowed  by  the 
authorities  to  copy  it  or  to  have  it  copied  ;  and  after  he  had  furnished  me  with  the 
above  facts,  I  decided  photographing  was  not  necessary. 

*  Excepting  always  the  tallow-chandler's. 

43 


Induction  to  the  Malcontent  ^  bef .  July,  1604 

Westward  Ho  c.  September  1604-1605 

Northward  Ho  Spring  1605-1606 

2.  Period  of  the  Revenge  Plays  :  mainly  under  the  influence  of 
Marston. 

The  White  Devil  Winter  1611-1612 

The  Duchess  of  Malfi  1617,  after  April 

3 .  Fletcherian  and  Academic  Period  :  under  the  influence  not  only 
of  Fletcher  and  Massinger,  but  of  the  old-fashioned  dramatists, 
Marlowe,  Heywood,  and  Shakspere. 

The  Guise              prob.  after  Malfi  and  before  D.  L.  C.^ 

The  Devil's  Law- Case  end  1620— July  1622 

Appius  and  Virginia  1623-1639 

A  Cure  for  a  Cuckold  after  Nov.,  1624 


1  'I 


This,  as  I  prove  in  Chap.  II,  is  all  Web.  wrote. 
"  See  below,  Chap.  IV,  Sect.  IV,  end. 


LEBENSLAUF. 


Ich  wurde  am  llten  Feb.,  1874,  zu  Orrvilie  in  Ohio,  als  Sohn  des 
Artztes  Stoll,  geboren.  Ich  besuchte  Harvard  University,  und  da- 
selbst  promovierte  ich  im  Jahr  1895  zum  Baccalaureus  Artium  und 
eiu  Jahr  dauach  zum  Magister.  Dann  reiste  ich,  studierte  fiir  mich 
selbst,  und  musste  meiue  Gesundheit  kraftigen.  Von  September,  1900, 
bis  Juni,  1902,  erteilte  ich  Unterricht  in  der  Englischen  Philologie  auf 
dem  Adelphi  (-ollege  zu  Brooklyn.  Im  Wintersemester  desselben 
Jahres  fing  ich  an,  germanische  und  romauische  Philologie  an  der  kgl. 
Fried.  Wil.  Univ.  zu  Berlin  zu  studieren,  und  hierauf  setzte  ich 
meine  Studien  an  der  kgl.  Lud.  Max.  IJ^niv.  zu  Miinchen  fort. 

Auf  Harvard  Univ.  wohnte  ich  unter  anderen  den  Vorlesungen  der 
Professoren  Child,  Norton,  Hill,  Kittredge,  Baker,  und  Gates  bei,  und 
zu  Berlin  und  Miinchen  denen  der  Professoren  Brandl,  Roethe, 
Siramel,  Breymann,  Paul,  und  Schick. 


44 


„^^^  14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

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on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subjea  to  immediate  recall 


OCT  SO  1962 

' 

LD  21-50m-6,'60                                General  Library 
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Berkeley 

